Twist of Fate
by Nil00
Summary: I learned from my life, that a smallest mistake can even bring a whole big change for my life. The thing is my life is filled with a lot of mistake so what the change will it do to the world?
1. Beginning after the end

Hell.

If there's one thing that's enough to portray this scene in front of me is hell.

Fire filled my entire vision and screaming is echoing through my eardrums repeating itself inside my head.

And all of that happen while I'm walking through this so-called hell. If anything it was the heat that's causing my vision to become hazy and blurry when I was walking.

Maybe I should consider myself lucky that I don't have to really see the detailed process of everyone around me dying?

Yeah I must be really lucky to not be "devoured" by this fire.

The whole town was burning and it was really hard to not breathe in the smoke.

I walk around away from my destroyed house, intending to search for my parents.

The instant I was outside though, I could see it clearly even though I'm still a child I know that this kind of things is...

Everyone around me die.

Maddening.

I've always told by my father to not do any harm to other people if you don't really have any clear reason, and my mother told me to always help people in need.

That's the reason why I think that this kind of scenery is maddening.

Everything that I learned in my life was thrown outside of the window and the reality turned upside down for me the moment this scenery was engraved inside the deepest part of my mind.

It's like the fire itself is alive.

It seeks any living beings, buildings, even the smallest of ant can't even escape. It devours anything that was in range and eat the target without any feeling even though the movement of the fire is like a sentient beings.

The fire eats away the person, their belongings, their family, and themselves. I was walking around this place aimlessly trying to find some place where the heat is not so strong like in here, as I was walking though I could feel the blistering heat on my skin as the fire tried so hard to kill me.

The fire filled my field of view everywhere I walk, one thought came across my mind when my surrounding is filled with so much fire that it was hard to even see forward with so much smoke and fire. Like how I first learn to walk, I walk very carefully as to not stepping on the fire.

It was hot.

The sound volume that's made from my shoes each time I walk is not even comparable to the scream and cry that's ringing in my head. I was walking forward trying so hard to search for my parents but when I've gotten out from one of the ruined down building…

I could hear the crackling sound from the fire as I watched the person in front of me died while trying to save other people.

I see a group of family trying to run away only to find that one of them is already die without they even knowing, and when they already figure out the loss of one of their members, they already surrounded by fire and die.

A pair of which seems like couple of man and woman is also running away and when they realized that they can't run in this sea of fire, the man throw away the woman in the sea of fire to create the path for himself to run, for a moment I thought I saw him smile only to find that in less than second the smile faded from his face as his previous action caused his demise when the almost dying woman grabbed his feet and both of them died.

A boy was stuck in the rubble of building while screaming loudly at the man who's trying to help him get away from rubble, the man was strong enough to lift a few rubbles on the boy's body and when they finished escaping they was already surrounded by the fire, ending their life.

And that's when I realized…

No one is going to save me.

Not even my parents, why?

Because they surely must have die in this place like the others around me.

People trying to save others and both of them dying in process of doing so. People trying so hard to save others or themselves and die while doing that. I could do nothing to save or help person in this state of mine.

I hate that.

Unfortunately for me though. Life didn't grant my wishes even if I wish for this fire to be undone, for this tragedy to be undone, for my peaceful life to come back.

But reality is not so easy for me.

There's a black scorched thing that was stuck in the rubbles of fallen house, the thing is large enough for it to be a human being which I discover was a real human as it screamed with its broken throat at me, a broken voice that I can't even recognize as human and yet still knowing that this person want someone to help him/her.

And not only there's one, but there's other people screaming at their surroundings. Some is the one who I assumed has gone crazy as they laughed in the middle of fire while standing in middle of fire not doing anything as the fire eat away their life.

Some is the one who's screaming at the world and cursing those around them for bringing this "hell". Some is the one who's screaming for help, some children around the same age of me is crying like me while running – though it looks like walking slowly since their legs did not even serve its function to support the body as some children falls while crying – and there's a children who's trying to run away searching for their parents only to find that no one is going to come.

And yet I still walk.

Ignoring all of them, ignoring all of they cry, ignoring all of their pleas, ignoring all of their screaming, I run toward some place where I can cool myself down. I close my ears with my hands trying so hard to ignore the other people sound.

And yet even with all of that I can't escape as I fall to the ground which seems like I was pulled by the gravity of the earth as my legs finally broke down and finished its job.

The fire comes at me trying to eat me away and yet there's still one thing that's lingering in my mind when the living fire comes at me slowly. I want to live, I want to live and escape from this place, want to live so that I can survive and see another day, want to live so that I could–.

But my mind is finally at its breaking point as my small body can't even register the pain when the fire is going to crawling through my body from my feet.

And yet due to some miracle I managed to stand again.

It's not a miracle though, if only it was just some means to prolonging my life for some seconds or if I'm lucky, one minute at most is the time I estimated with my broken mind while at the same time trying to figure out how to escape from this place.

The sole of my shoes has a small burning mark - which I know was from the fall before - and was scorched black a bit because of the fire but fortunately it didn't completely burned. I don't know what I will do if I didn't have shoes because surely my feet would be dead the moment it touched the current heat of the ground.

If there's one thing that I know even as a child is the fact that I cannot escape this place if I don't somehow pull out some miracle.

So I walk, I walk through this hell once again, but alas my feet didn't last long until my body falls in which seems like the next building from where I fall previously.

And yet with all of that I stand again trying to deny the fact that I will die.

"*Sob*"

Tears finally broke down from my eyes as I feel some water streaming down from my face. I practically could hear my sobbing even with all people screaming and yet, I know that crying will not solve anything – was what's taught by my parents – so I rubbed my watery eyes and cleaned my eyes.

I walk again this time with more broken body than the previous try.

Everytime I breaths with my broken lungs it feels like I was breathing a poisoning smoke as my life is eaten away bit by bit. When I walk with my broken legs my sense of pain which can't even register the pain anymore – which I'm grateful for – is also being eaten as I cannot even know that my naked feet touched the ground.

My organs still managed to work, I can still hear the screaming from people around me which means that my ears and my sense of hearing is still working, I still hear my heartbeat from my body. My eye which is still blurry with tears can still see my surrounding as I walked away from this place.

I could smell the stench of people's corpse and the heat of fire through my nostrils. My five senses is still working since I can still feel the heat of the fire through my skin meaning that I still could feel pain.

I walked again not even noticing about the fact that I couldn't feel my feets anymore from few moment ago.

"hElp… **M** e.."

I hears other people plea despite I have closed my ears with my hands. I glanced downward and seen a middle aged woman who've her legs burned into black crisp, she extended her hand toward me. Maybe she was hoping that I will help her?

And yet I ignore her and avoided her range of arm and in not even a minute has passed after I passed her, she died.

Because of that many thought came to my mind about how the woman before me died.

Will I die like her too? Like how everyone around me died? Will I die without knowing what the future hold for me?

My train of thought stopped as I fall again, dumbfounded at the fact that my feet is already beyond saving.

At that time I accepted my demise as the fire already on its way for me.

And for the first time in my life I see a black thing swirling around on the sky when I look up. It was black in color and round in shape – No, it's not even a shape. When one looks at it from afar one will see a black round thing flying on the sky.

But it's not, it's not a shape and it's most certainly not a sun.

It was a hole.

Something has pierced and leaves a hole in the sky.

My thought strayed off from path as I realized that I was still in life and death situation where I will die after this. Not waking up again, not seeing another day, and most certainly not even knowing what caused this fire which made me worried because this fire no matter how one look at it, is not natural.

I reach out my hand to the sky and looking at the hole in the sky, I couldn't help but think that somehow the hole is connected with this fire. I feel like I was one step away from the truth but unfortunately my fate stopped short as death is approaching me.

I must have stopped crying because I can't even feel the tear from my eyes, either I don't care about my life anymore that I stopped crying or my eyes have been dried off because of the fire. I feel that it was the latter more than the former though.

I closed my eyes intending to end the pain that I've gone through and yet the fact that the fire is eating away my life didn't change and I didn't even know how I could survive through this hell if I don't managed to pull off some miracle.

No one see me die in this place.

No one cared as my memories of the people that I call "family" is being eaten away as well.

No one will save me.

And when I was done thinking, I couldn't think any hard things more in my state so I did the last thing I could. My body will die if I didn't do anything so maybe my action is because a small part of me really, really wanted to live so…

I trade my heart for my body.

I think it was simple. But even though I've done that, the best thing that will come out from this is that I was delaying my death for a few seconds. For the last time of my life, I reached out my hand to the hole intending to search through that hole, and maybe just maybe…

A miracle will occurs.

And then as if to answer my prayers, my hand was grasped by the other hand.

The fire that's on the way to eat my heart was stopped.

"You're alive? Hey, you're alive right?" A woman voice called out to me when my body is at its limit. I managed to fully open my eyelids to see the voice who give me some shred of hope in this middle of hell.

The one who called out to me was a woman in the middle of her twenties, she has chin-length blue hair and dark yellow eyes. Her skin is white and healthy which contrasting to her surrounding which is filled with scream and agony. Her uniform though is not on the same state as her skin her black coat is scorched a bit and tattered while her face was sprayed with a bit of blood.

She hugged me at that instant and seems to check my pulse to confirm if I was alive or not.

At that instant my body which is somehow still survived – I don't know maybe due to stroke of luck or something – waking up by instinct, my will to live becomes more strong as I resisted the fire that's still trying to kill me.

"*Cough*" I managed to let out a cough to let the woman know that I'm still alive, although I described it as a cough instead of a cough the sound that came out from my burned throat was like a small high-pitched scream.

"You're… alive…" Even with my blurry eyes I could see a single shed of tear came out from her eye. She hugged me again this time with more force, if there's one thing that I can feel with this broken body of mine is how her presence somehow gives me a will to live.

Then she released me from her arms and her expression changed into shocked and upon realizing how badly my body was she clicked her tongue.

"Don't go dying on me yet! You hear me!" The woman said with aggressive tone as she picked up my body. Her face was desperate and filled with lot of sweat – which I could understand because of this tremendous heat in this place anyone will experience that.

I can feel my body was lifted up by the woman as she carried me away from that accursed place. My body was carried in her arms as she picked me up like how a mother will do to her son.

And from my state which I was currently in, I could see that the rain is finally come to the place which I was in a moment ago.

It's good.

If the rain has started to fall then the fire will surely be taken out as well.

I closed my eye hoping that I will wake up tomorrow so that I could live and if I'm lucky maybe properly introducing myself to this woman who've saved my life.

So I sleep peacefully in her cradling arms while feeling grateful toward the one who've saved me.

And yet even with all of that…

I still couldn't forget the fact that I've trampled over other people lives to survive.

 **This is my first time writing a fanfic, so please give me a lot of reviews and sorry for the bad writing, I'm still learning English because it's not my first or second language.**


	2. A new life

**Thanks for all of you who've read my story!**

 **Truthfully I didn't think that I can write a story as long as this with my decent English skills but I'm still trying to learn it anyway. And sorry for the slow update, I can't stop playing Fate/GO because of the valentine event I've to get all of the chocolates for all of the female servants especially Kiyohime.**

 **And now since there's no real event going on except waiting for the collaboration between KNK and Fate/GO (Free 4* Shiki please!). I decided to write the second chapter of my story, and about the question about what the world will it be, I'm thinking about making this world a fusion between the two but still can't came up with the idea to made the two mages, Magician DXD and Magus Nasuverse coexistent in the same world.**

 **And for mysterious woman, she's an OC I made for the purpose of building Issei bit by bit. And first of all Issei won't have a distortion, he will have his own reason, his own ideal, and his own wish. Issei right now is like a blank that can be filled with anything so the purpose of the OC I've made is to give Issei some sort of purpose in his life.**

 **And once again thanks for the one who have leaves this story some reviews for me to read!**

 **Warning: Bad Grammar and writing, I don't know where is the mistake because if I know I will have fix it already. Shield your eyes or don't read this story if you don't want to.**

 **That aside… Story start.**

"Uggh"

I rub my eyes as the light entering my eyes when I woke up, I rubbed my eyes a few more before finally stopping when my eyes has accustomed to the bright white light.

I looked around myself to recognize that I was in some unfamiliar room.

…

Wait, unfamiliar?

I racked my brain to search for a definition of a term called "unfamiliar". Unfamiliar is used to define when someone experiencing something different than what they usually do or seeing something unrecognizable and compare it to what they normally see. Based on that, my brain should deem this kind of thing as new because I can't remember in my life I've been in a room before.

Should I consider this room to be unfamiliar? No, in fact I should consider this the first time I've been in a room. Because in the first place according to my memories I should have _never_ been in a room before. But no matter what I can't help but feel that sometime in the past I've been in room different than this one, maybe because of that I unconsciously used the term unfamiliar for this room?

It's like my brain is just decided this kind of thing without my knowledge and whatnot. I feel like in the past I've been in a different room other than this one and my brain deemed this kind of room is unfamiliar. But no matter how hard I search I swear that I should have _never_ been in a room before, much less a house.

Something is missing, my brain is missing something. I can't remember what happened yesterday, not even what my name was! It seems like I can still talk with an unknown language and some proper things that I've gotten still embedded into my brain.

Come to think of it, this is a house right?

A house must have an owner so that means there's another person right here beside me right? Maybe I can ask something about my situation because no matter how hard I think about this kind of thing is unthinkable for me.

I tried to move my body to get up from the futon intent to search for the occupant of this house, I look down at my body and realized that I was wrapped in some sort of white cloth. Ignoring my naked state, I tried to stand up and the moment I do that…

An unrecognizable pain assaulted me.

"Gih!?"

My body falls into the futon because of the unknown feels of pain, it's hurt. I think that it was a bad idea to move my body right now, well at least I can still get up just fine but to stand up on my own two feet is still unachievable for me right now.

I lay down my body in the soft futon and tried hard to remember my memories before.

My train of thoughts is interrupted by the sound of the door sliding before me. I turned my view to the sliding door and met with a blue haired woman. At that instant…

My memories came back.

"Ah…"

Memories are flooding my mind as I remembered what I've gone through before.

The fire,

The burning city,

The death of many people,

A woman that saved me, and…

The hole.

Yeah, my memories came back but the only thing that I remember is just the fire I've gone through before, I don't remember who my parents was, where I live before, when was I born. Everything was erased except me surviving that hell and that one name that keep lingering in my mind.

When I try to remember who I was, a voice call out to me that stopped me from trying to dive further into my mind.

"Finally awake huh?" The woman said with a clear tone but I noticed a tint relief in her voice though it was really well-hidden. My eyes met with her dark yellow eyes, she was observing me as if I'm a previous thing for her and I can see that she's holding a tray filled with various kinds of food, ranging from rice, soup, water, and pair of chopstick was served on the tray.

Unlike when she saved me before, right now she's wearing some more casual clothes. She's currently wearing a loose blue jeans and simple white collar shirt. All in all she's quite a beauty in my preferences if not for her cold and yellow eyes of hers was staring and piercing at me.

She come closer to me, placed the tray beside her and sitting cross legged on the tatami floor.

….

Ummm.

Should I say something right now?

It's already past a minute and both of us spent that time to glare at each other, observing every movement she make, I sweat dropped at her calm and cold expression plastered across her face even though I'm glaring at her.

Then after finally realizing that nothing will came out of this, she sighed and scratched the back of her head before staring at me again.

"You won't even talk to me? And here I thought that I will be showered with all kinds of questions, I guess I shouldn't expect more from a kid like you huh?" She said and for the second time today, she finally speaks at me.

I tried to mutter out word from my mouth to strike down her complaint but before I even get to form a word, a disturbing sound came from my stomach.

"Growl~"

Any word that I want to speak before then now is stuck within my mouth as I realize that my stomach is empty and demand at me to fill it up. I looked back at the blue haired woman and realized that she's smirking at me and I somehow knew that she's finding this kind of things to be funny.

"Well, you know what? I've brought your food in here so the least you can do is to eat on your own alright? I will leave you alone for a bit." She said while picking herself up and reached out to the sliding door before looking back at me.

"I'll wait in the outside, call me if you're already finished." And with that the door is closed once again and I turn my head to the side of the bed to find the tray of food is waiting for me to fill myself up. I swallowed my saliva and before realizing it myself, my hand is already reaching out for the food on the tray.

Oh well, the question can wait later. For now like that woman said, I must eat before I can do something.

*Scene Break*

Turn out I can still get up a bit to pick the food and eat by myself, although it was hard but I must quickly regain my senses so that I could know what is happening with me. I gulped down the whole glass of water to satisfy the dryness in my throat and finally reclaiming my calmness, I sighed before turning my head to the door before me.

Before I was thinking that she don't care about my situation when she told me to eat on my own even though one could tell from afar that I was a sick person that's wrapped up in lot of bandages then any person will think that my movement was restricted in some way by looking at my pained expression when I tried to move my body.

Based on that statement one could see this woman as someone who doesn't care about me but if I look at it from different angle, it was clear that that woman is the one who've been taking care of me since I've been rescued.

From that it was easy to conclude that I've been feed by this woman surely once or two if my sense of time doesn't mess up then that fire must've been occurred… Yesterday? A week ago? A month? It seems like while I can still think logically about the time and place around me, I still couldn't remember what day it was when the fire occurred and what day is it now.

I could still feel her presence behind the door and just like she said before, she's waiting. I mutter out some words and it surprised me a bit when I can still talk normally like _before_. I breathe in some air to preparing myself.

"Come in." I said and again with my lost memories, I feel that my voice is strangely matched to what I had in my mind despite my memory lost state. My thought stopped when I hear the door sliding before me, revealing the very same woman who saved my life.

She sat down in the same position as before and from her expression I can conclude that she was tired and restless though she hides it very well. "I will straight to the point in here, kid what is your name?" She said with serious voice and I searched in my mind and what's left of my memories about myself. The only thing that I can find inside my empty mind is just one name but just from that single name, I strangely feel relieved that I, at least remember something.

"Issei… Hyoudou Issei… I-I don't know somehow my memories about myself disappeared" I'm not entirely sure if that's my name or just strange thought I have, but the only thing that is left in my memories is just that single name. I assumed that it was important name because from all of the things I could remember only that one single name that came up on my mind, and so based on that assumption it was either the name of something important to me or my own name.

She sighed again before continuing "A real tricky situation you're in aren't you? Okay, now then Issei. Do you know anything about yourselves? Or is your name is the only one you could remember? About your parents, family or any relatives?" She asked me which I strangely thought felt like she was interrogating me.

"I don't remember anything…" I said honestly but maybe I can talk to her about the fire? Consider this instinct or not, I really thought that the incident yesterday is the one that causing me all of this problems. Assuming that the only one who survived from that incident is only me, I can't really put it into word how I felt about that.

"Then what do you want? Do you want to stay here with me and being taken by me, the woman you just met? Or you prefer to go out and sent off into an orphanage?" The woman said with serious voice but despite that façade she put outside inside her mind, I could see it… somehow, I know that she want something from me.

But really, the choice is hard. I crossed both my arms on top of my chest and put on a thoughtful expression, one reason is clear though that I really want to know about this woman since this is the one who've saved me. But from her statement something about it is making me felt weird, if she wants me to stay with her, why did she say "the woman you just met"? When she could just say "the woman that saved you" to ensure my agreement to live with her?

It's like she's clearly stating that she won't have any hand in this choice of mine, but somehow I feel that if I turn out leaving this house and go into an orphanage, I somehow feels that she will feels a bit sad about my departure.

"Well, the choice is yours to make and don't be too quick to decided it. This is after all one choice that will change your life." The woman said while preparing to leave the room.

"…I will stay here."

And stopped the moment I said that.

"Is it really wise for you to be taken in by a woman you just met?" She shoots down my answer clearly without turning her head back at me. Why? Why did she try really hard to make me leave this house despite inside her, I can see that she don't want me to leave!? This kind of thing is unthinkable for me! I don't even know who this woman is, what her intent is, and what she wants to do with me once I was within her grasp.

But somehow, a small part of me really want to stay with this woman meanwhile my instinct clearly told me that this woman is dangerous and not to mess with her. Is it wise to choose this answer though? If by wise meaning making the most logical and mature choice, then no. But if by wise meaning that I make a choice where I may not regret myself, then yes.

"…I will stay here." I said clearly stating my seriousness since I spoke a same word with different tone of voice, the woman turned her head back at me and – Did she smile? – turned her whole body to face me entirely. I can see a tint of happiness in her cold and calm expression, huh? Strangely I also felt happy that someone is happy because of me.

"Then I guess introduction is needed for both of us to interact more in future no?" She said finally going to introduce herself to me, she put one hand on her hip and looking down at me while having amused expression plastered on her face. "My name is Elisha Leywin, nice to meet you kid."

I nod my head to her introduction and expecting a great future from hers.

*Scene break*

Alright I want to ask myself about the whole thing of wise choice I've made before.

I want to rebutted myself and reclaim that I say I expect a great future from living with hers. Oh really, I really want to make some sense to the past-me. Oh well who am I to choose? I'm just a kid with memory lost and also there's a saying that a beggars can't choose right?

The thing that I found dissatisfaction with is how I can come to this conclusion. Currently after having dinner I was trying to learn how to clean the whole house, where I and Elisha currently live. The problem is not that I'm complaining about how **big** this house is for someone who live alone, it's the fact that Elisha don't want to even do any housework.

Anyway back to the problem, I wondered how I can become something akin to… I think the term "housewives" is matching for this kind of situation? Anyway, after I've made a great leap in my recovery I've told that, if you want to live and eat in this house you must work. So I did just that.

At first I'm just cleaning my own room and several unused guest rooms in this house but seeing Elisha's bad work at housework I can't help but do a face-palm. If I was told how bad she is at doing housework then I've to say that she doesn't even have any experience in it.

It also explains how all of the room is dirty-looking as if someone haven't been occupied it for years. The cooking is… I can't even say it as bad because of that incident, I can still remember how I need to clean up the kitchen because of the accidental explosion in the kitchen and the culprit just turned her head away from my glare and not saying anything regarding the obviously-accidental explosion.

I'm volunteered to learn how to cook from our former housekeeper and the result is… well at least it's a bit better than Elisha's and I don't even make an explosion so hurray to that! So with that, that's one thing to add from my job I currently have besides cleaning the rooms which is cooking training because I'm prohibited to use kitchen other than making simple fried eggs and toast. I asked about the rest of the house situation and once again she turned her head away as if saying that she doesn't want to have any relations with the problem.

So I wandered around the house looking for any dirty spot to clean off while at the same time also trying to memorize the structure of the house. From the outside and inside I can see that some of the building is designed in Japanese style and some of the guest room is designed in Western style, maybe to change the scenery?

The house is big enough that it can maybe accommodate 5-8 peoples despite the only people living in here is just me and Elisha. Because of our situation – Neither of us could cook – Elisha go to our former housekeepers and beg her to made us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She surprisingly agreed to work for free but just to make food, because the cleaning task is on me, Elisha quickly accept it without my consent.

The name of our former housekeepers is Mrs. Takagi, also our neighbor but Elisha seldom talks to her so I just assumed their relationship as just acquaintance. She is the one who cook for our meal, sometime she also gave me some pocket money for me to buy something but I never use it and always give it to Elisha.

That will also explain how my room is clean despite the others is dirty. When I'm still sick she must've told Takagi-san to clean my room when I was asleep and if what she said about our current living finances is true then it's safe to assume that Takagi-san is paid cheap with the condition of cleaning only my room and cooking for both of us. I can't think of other logical explanation since this house is really huge, I imagined that to keep this house clean everyday one must at least have one or two servants.

But now she's not a paid housekeeper anymore so it's not her duty to care about our house – Which the said duty fells to me –, but despite not being paid anymore she still happily cook the food for us. After some time, I begin to learn from watching her cooking and right now still training how to cook.

Back to the cleaning duty…

While it may seems like a waste to clean up the unused room, I just don't like to see something left dirty just because it was unused and Elisha is too busy to care about my opinion so I just took it as she agreed to.

It has dojo that's once again unused even though the place is a nice place to relax and meditate, Elisha seems to not agree with me and prefer to relax on a nice warm bed. I've made some agreement with Elisha that sometime in the future I will spar from time to time with her.

And there's also that old shed outside of the house at the edge of the yard that I was forbidden to come in by Elisha, though I want to see it so badly I can't risk of getting her anger because I know that she is not someone to mess with much less made enemy with. So I avoided the shed for now but if by any chance that I'm offered to come in and take a look, I will take that chance anytime right now.

Ah, I let my thought strayed off again. I can't really focus into one thing at a time when I have so much to think on.

It has already been four months since I live with her in this house, of course I myself has already asked her about the fire which she answered that she doesn't really know about it. I know she's lying, but decided not to ask her further about it. After the incident somehow I can see when someone lying or not and I can feel other people feelings naturally. After realizing the ability I had, I quickly asked Elisha about it and the answer is not what I expect.

She told me that this sort of thing is not what normal person usually haves especially when the one who have it is still a child no less than 10, I asked her of course, is this sort of thing is wrong? She then asked me about how I felt about my life right now which I answered.

I feel empty.

I still remembered how her expression turned grim once I said that and from that time I realized that something is wrong about how I live. Then what came out from her mouth was not what I expected from someone like her. A curse, I remembered when she said that. In exchange of knowing the feeling of other person had, I suffered the lack of something that made me empty.

It was then that I realized what is made me different from other person. I'm devoid of enjoyment and can't have "fun" like other people had.

I can't really put it in a word how I felt about the curse and sometime asking myself about the meaning of life, is living my whole life filled with pleasure and joy is something right? I asked Elisha and she told me about how I lack some common sense and started to teach me about it from the scratch. It feels weird to be told what is right and wrong in my life and what should I do if I'm going to take my first step to the outside world.

But even though I can't have fun or enjoy my life like any other people can, I sometime unconsciously smile when Elisha felt happy about something, when other people was happy because of me I can't help but think that seeing someone smile is something weird. It's like there's something that's urging me to do it more, to make more people happy, even though I'm empty is this… what people called desire? A weird way to life maybe it's because how Elisha always told me to help people in need is a right thing?

Maybe I can found and regain my emotions back? Maybe I can found some sort of purpose in my life? Maybe my life will not be so empty anymore when I can finally have something that can be called "fun"?

Then there's also a problem with my memory lost too, sometime if I'm doing something that I've been doing before I lost my memories then sometime my body muscle will remember it even though I don't remember ever doing that before.

It feels weird but that's the way the thing is with my current state.

I sighed to myself and get back in the house. There again, I let my thought stray and unfocused at the task that I'm currently doing which is trying to memorize the whole house.

Anyway back to the topic at hand, I also found that this house is filled with many weird things, for example one of the guest rooms is decorated with many antique-looking things inside the room like a small knife that emitting a strange aura that I can't describe with word or a grotesque-looking statue that made me feels weird every time I came close to. Elisha also forbids me to not play or touch any of them and she also told me not to come in her room without her permission.

Did she will be embarrassed because her room is dirty? But when she's warning me to not come in her room, I didn't detect any kind of embarrassment or strange thought, it's a pure seriousness and her expression is cold and emotionless as always. So I take the warning seriously and didn't do much to her room, I sometime offered to clean her room but she always refused saying that she can do it alone.

And then there's also my own room, since I'm still a child I was given a room near Elisha's was but whereas I can't see Elisha's room which made it more mysterious, my room is nothing but plain and normal for someone like me I feels more relaxed when there's nothing ridiculous like room filled with various poster of artist and similar things like that.

My room is just a plain Japanese tatami-floored room filled with a cushion on the floor to sit when I'm trying to relax and an empty desk waiting to be filled. There's also a clock without alarm on my desk and a wardrobe filled with currently two set of clothes and one jacket.

It's already night so I purposefully go to the living room where the kitchen is also located and found Elisha is already there sitting on one of the cushion while munching on rice cracker and sometime switch to sip the green tea that she have already prepared before – even if she can't cook that doesn't mean she can't even make a simple green tea.

She rested her head on her left hand while the other hand is used to eat the rice cracker, she right now is currently watching the news on the TV, even though her eyes is fixed on the screen, her face right now is a very definition of bored-looking. I sat on the opposite end of the wooden-made table across of her to make my presence known to her.

Noticing my presence she stopped looking at the TV and turned her head at me.

"What's going on Issei? Finally bored looking around the house?" She asked while still eating the snack in her hand.

"Not really, though I really need some rest now that I spent my entire day running around the whole house." I replied while reaching out for the kettle filled with green tea and a cup to drink. I pour down the hot green tea and take a sip from it before listening to what will Elisha said to me.

"I've told you that didn't I? It's your own fault that you ignored my warning." She paused to munch the rice cracker down and continue. "Heck, even I don't really care about this whole house except my own room and yours."

I deadpanned at myself upon listening to her explanation, from what I've learned usually most of the people will always check their house inside to ensure their own safety and the one who will live with them but it seems like this woman in front of me isn't included in most of the people I've mentioned.

"You don't even know what's inside of your own house? Really Elisha?" I replied to her while reaching out for the rice cracker on the table.

"As much as I want to, my business is not so easy as you thought that I can spent the entire day looking around the house just to make sure I memorize the whole house unlike you who doesn't really do anything."

I raised an eyebrow at her long explanation. It's not unusual for her to engage in conversation like this but sometime it always ended short and it never get into this long. Meanwhile the person in question is already turned her attention back to the TV and ignored my whole presence, I felt kind of annoyed at her saying about me so I decided to rebut her statement.

"Said someone who's ordering me around to do the whole housework?" I ask her who still has her gaze fixed at the screen and without even looking at me she replied again.

"Who did you think the one who earn our living expense kid?" And my claim is instantly shoot down at her explanation. I sighed once again at her response but I can't help but feels that sometime I also need this kind of conversation for a breath of fresh air. Unconsciously a small smile crept up on my face.

"Alright I give up, but if I'm not here then who's going to cook and clean?" This time she turned her head at me and gives me her answer to my previous question.

"I can just hire some housekeeper to keep this house clean and cook for me."

"Really? And I thought it was only yesterday that you said "If I keep hiring Takagi to do our housework, our money for living is going to be emptied out sooner or later." Right?"

"It's a truth kid, honestly I can't expect you to know the job of adult like me." She said with a tired sigh.

"If you mean locking yourselves up in a room everyday was a job then yeah you really do a great job at that."

"Gee, thanks."

A smile made a way on her face as her gaze is fixated on the TV once again. "Come to think of it, is Takagi-san already leaving?" Basically the one who do the cleaning is me and sometime Takagi-san if she has some free time but the one who cook lunch, dinner, and sometime breakfast is always Takagi-san. If Takagi-san is not here in the morning I'm the one who's usually made Elisha and me a breakfast.

She tilted her head to the side while looking lazily at the TV. "Just a minute ago, she's blabbering about "Making your own food" and all about "Housewives" but I don't hear it really well so I just ignored her."

"How rude is that for someone who's voluntarily taking care of us."

She stopped looking at the TV and turned her gaze back at me while saying "Oi, oi that's not really my fault isn't it? After all I've already told her that I'm not interested in such a talk like that, that's her own fault for not listening to me."

"Yeah yeah you win this time Elisha, but really tomorrow please apologize to Takagi-san okay?"

"Don't tell me what to do kid, I know what I'm doing and I don't regret it."

"That would be a good line to say if not for the fact that what you're doing is wrong."

Turning back to her TV again without even looking at my eyes she continued talking. "Your enthusiasm aside, how about you go out tomorrow? It's been already four months since you've stayed in this house and I don't want you to become NEET because I've already saved up some money for you to complete your highschool."

"Shouldn't you say that to yourselves though? You yourselves didn't even get out of this house except to buy some groceries."

"Cause if I don't who will buy it? You're still a kid and your arms are still not trained enough to carry some heavy things right?"

"Well sorry but expect it to be done sometimes in the future."

She smile slightly at my response and begin to talk again. "But really Issei, right now you really need a breath of fresh air and although I'm not going to force it, go make some friends with kids at your age."

Yeah, it maybe it was a good idea for me to go out sometime, to make a friend huh? Come to think of it, I don't really interact much with peoples except Elisha. The least that I do is just go outside to take a walk and never talk with kids of my age, based on that I wasn't someone that people usually call "normal" huh?

Even if Elisha said it, that doesn't mean I'm never go out of this house. I sometime go out to walk around this whole town called "Kuoh Town" but never going past the city border because of Elisha's warning, I want to explore the mountain near the town but because I'm still a child now, maybe then in the future.

Back to the topic though, I also go out to talk with our neighbors since Elisha is too lazy to form a relationship with them. The weird things is that people more older than me are attracted strangely because of me and sometime also given pocket money by elderly people around this neighborhood.

It seems like Elisha didn't notice that I attracted older people and casually saying that I don't have any friends, though I befriended several elderly and adult in this town I've never play with any of their kids huh? I guess what she said about making a friend with a kid at my age might be a good things to start with.

"I'm also going out sometime too you know? You just never see me do it."

"Eh really? Well sorry to say but I'm going to ask you this have you talk to at least one kid around your age and made a friend with him/her?"

Guh! She got me good this time.

"Alright, don't worry okay? I will follow your advice this time. Also as you said, it's a good time for me to make some friend."

"Huh? You will really do it?" She said with a fake surprised tone, it was well-hidden that I almost can't hear the difference but with my gift(curse) I able to differentiated the real and fake.

"Mhm." I nodded in agreement at her question. She sighed in relief and from her face I can see that she felt kind of relieved at what I don't know.

"Wait, what did you think I'm going to do?"

"I'm glad that you will go out to make some friend, I thought you will become some kind of shut-in."

"Your worry is misplaced you know." I said while trying to reach for another rice cracker. One thing that I know from living with her is that I always lose at argument with her.

"Heh. You still got a lot to learn if you're worried about me then at least try to reach for my level."

"What kind of level are you talking about?" I sweat dropped at her statement and want to say that I surpassed her in housework but doing so would mean that I've become quite arrogant. I pick up one of the empty cup and filled it with the green tea from the kettle.

I gulped it down a whole and sighed. If I'm really going to make friends then I suppose I should learn some common sense from Elisha huh? Sometime she always said that I lack something that made me the same from other people. One of them is how I lack common sense.

Yeah hate to say it but because of that "incident". I've already thrown away my common sense a long time ago, so to put it in a way I must first learn some common sense from the scratch if I want to make some friends.

A yawn escaped from my mouth as I tried hard to stay awake but the sleepiness is hard to resist. Seeing this Elisha made another smile at me.

"Don't try too hard to stay awakes kid, I know that you want to accompany me tonight but it's already late anyway so why don't you go to sleep?"

I shake my head at her question still trying to stay awake but my view start to become blurry as my eyelids started close but I managed to open it again only to find that it started to close again.

"You're really a stubborn one aren't you?" she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice and I could tell that despite annoyed, she also found this scene entertaining. Meanwhile I still trying to keep my eyelids from closing, managed to get a glimpse of her smile that seems to melt into the bright light. I shake my head and slap myself in the cheeks to keep myself awake.

I stare at the clock that's etched into the wall and found that it's already 09:15. Yeah, normal or not, amnesia or not, a kid usually or should sleep in such a time like this.

"You will go out tomorrow right? So get a good night rest so that tomorrow you can play in the park."

Yeah, using that logic I should've sleep by now. I don't hate this kind of peaceful life and I hope that this peaceful scenery can last forever. I get up from the cushion and started to make my way to my own room, I slide the door but was stopped when Elisha called out to me.

"Sorry but do you think you can warm up the bath for me?"

"You want to take a bath this late?" My voice's volume is low and it sound lazy and kind of sloppy at that moment I realize that I really need to sleep, I let out another yawn as I waited for Elisha's answer.

"Yeah, I really need one right now you know? Business and all of that make my body sore."

"Mhm." I nodded and think that maybe even though she locked herself up in her room, she really doing some kind of job huh? It's unthinkable for me right now to think how Elisha could earn moneys just by doing a job in a room, but I understand enough from her tired face that it's not something that I should ask and know about now.

Yeah, this kind of peaceful life isn't so bad after all.

*Scene Break*

I wake up when the light from the sun is shining through my opened window, opening my tired eyes I rub it a few times before stretching my body to made myself sure that I'm fully awake and prepared to go away from my room.

It's already 05:15 when I looked into the clock on the desk in my room. I folded up the futon that I've used to sleep just a while ago and go to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast for both occupant of this house.

When I go to the living room – That's also connected with the kitchen – I didn't see anyone and deem it as usual scene since Elisha always stayed up late, it's normal that she doesn't like to wake up early in the morning and considering that she once told me that she's not a morning person to begin with, I can't force my opinion of waking up early into her right?

I smiled a little at the experience of doing my first time cooking, and although it didn't ended up in explosion, the egg that I try to fry for the first time was burnt black into crisp and so I practiced for one month to cook with the stove and frying pan before finally cooking my first fried egg.

When I asked Elisha about the caution of using cooking utensils for the children, she just shrugged it off and like usual she casually saying "As long as you're not wounded then it's fine, practice all you want." I want to refute that and say "How about you try to cook?" But since I didn't want to repeat the previous cooking incident, I decided that it would be wise to stay calm and did nothing about it.

And here I am, a child no more than 6 making a quick breakfast while his guardian is sleeping inside her room.

"Well…"

It's no use to try and talk with her about cooking in the first place so I don't really have any choice in this can't I?

*Scene Break*

""Thank you for the meal""

Both of us said in the same time, our breakfast is nothing special though. It's just two sunny-side-ups eggs and toast for each of us. After finishing the breakfast, I drink some water and put the plate back into the sink to wash it meanwhile Elisha is already has her hand on the remote TV and proceeding her activities as usual to watch the morning news.

Now that I think about it, if she's outside of her room Elisha's always watching TV or if our refrigerator is empty she will actually go out and buy some from the nearest convenient store. Basically her life is just work, watching TV, buying groceries, eat, drink, and sleep. Though she will answer my question if I'm asking something, but if I ask about something vague like how should I life then she will not answer me.

She will also told me if I'm doing something in a wrong way and sometime correct it but if I'm not actually doing anything then she will not even bother to talk to me.

"Hey Elisha, I've been really meaning to ask this…"

Elisha's gaze is still fixed on the screen of the TV where the news is telling about the weather forecast for today, but I will take that as "yes" anyway.

"How come that you're just watching the news channel everyday, it's like you don't even want to watch any other show at all." Yes, what I've stated is true. She's practically just turning the TV on and off, never did she watch any entertainment show all she watch is just news and sometime politics.

"Hmm? Ah, this thing?" She said while pointing to the TV and the remote at the same time. "It's not like I'm lazy to change the channel but considering that I give a little care about the politics of this country, all I focused into is something general like weather predictions, traffic accidents, and other crimes around this world."

"Heee, I never thought you to be the type to care about something like that." I said honest about my current thought at her statement.

"Well, for weather predictions it's just for some trivial things but for crimes…" She paused and closed her eyes to think about how to say the words. "It's a lives we're talking about you know? How do you feel when you know that everyday other people are dying all over the world?"

That… "I'm… not entirely sure how to answer that…"

She blinks for a few times before letting out a tired sigh. "Oh yeah, you're still a kid… don't take the way I said seriously alright? Although you're different than kid at your age usually, that still did not change the fact that your mind is still in developed state."

I know that I shouldn't take what she said seriously because from what I've learned kid usually spent their time with playing and sometime studying, but me? I am empty and devoid of enjoyment, I can't even have a thought about what if I can have fun like any normal people out there.

That aside though, what do I feel when people dying huh? My memories shifted back to the fire who have made my life like this and when I thought about the people around me are dying, I can't help but hating that even though deep inside me, I'm empty. Seems like human emotions are more complex than I thought huh?

I stopped my current activities for a second to ask something that I've been holding for some time. "Then do you think that killing people is wrong Elisha?"

"Based on the reason, I think. If takes for example a people who's already have a messed up mind to begin with begun to kill someone accidentally and take pleasure in killing someone. What do you think of it Issei?"

"Is that evil?"

She snorts a little and her eyes were no longer staring at the screen in front of her but staring into one of the empty space in the house. "Depend, some will take it as evil while some who have the similar mindset like that killer will understand the whole point of killing and sometime will deem it as normal or good. Then again…" She trailed off looking upward as if trying to remember some old memories.

"There's also a type of people who although rare but exist, this person is the one who do killing to save another person life, like someone who will kill the whole village just to protect their family or the opposite where this person will usually kill the one who made the crime and in the end saved more life than the one he killed, usually this type of people will sacrifice few to save many." She finished and putting back the plate to its place I asked.

"If other people think that killing is wrong and evil while they thought that saving life is correct and good then what do they view in someone who kills people to save another?" I said voicing my curiosity, even if I know that she's a bit annoyed at a lot of my question, I can't help but want to ask it anyway maybe it was my instinct as a child to have a lot of curiosity.

"You really like to ask a hard question huh? But well I've got nothing to do anyway so I will answer it." She said while pouring the green tea to drink while explaining.

"The type of people you said is usually someone who upholds justice. They're unwanted people by the view of the world but needed by people regardless of their feeling."

I tilted my head to the side while still washing the dish in the kitchen, still not understanding I asked her about it. "Then if a killer is pleasuring himself by killing people, is it evil?"

"That's… a hard question to answer with…" She said while putting on a thoughtful expression, placing her hand on her chin while trying to come up with the answer to my question.

"What you're basically saying is that, is selfish evil? The thing I know is that not all of selfish people are evil, if take example of someone who wants to protect his loved ones and will do anything to protect them which involves killing.

"It's hard to say whether he's evil or not because even though he's merciless toward the one who threatening his family, he's doing that because he's protecting something close to him which actually quite a noble action if I've to say."

I finished washing all the dishes and turned my attention back to the other occupant of this room. Drying off my hands using the towel that have been prepared in the kitchen beforehand, I sat on one of the cushion while resting my head on the table.

Elisha poured down another cup of green tea and giving it to me while sipping her own. "Here, you seems like you need to take some load off from your mind." She said meanwhile I just lost in my own thought about what she said before.

"Thanks…"

"Hey Elisha…" I begin but stopped abruptly to think about how to say the question in my mind, all this talk about evil and good is making my head and mind confused about the meaning of that but what I'm going to ask Elisha is different. And I never actually think that she will actually answer my question about killing…

"I'm asking if… _if_ there's someone who enjoy and take pleasure in other people suffering, is he evil?"

She sighed and closed her eyes for a second, rubbing her temple before actually replied my question. "If that someone can _only_ enjoy from other people suffering then isn't he basically just a victim? Why do you ask this anyway?"

"…." I'm not actually sure how I was going to answer that, I don't know why but I get that strange thought of evil and good from nowhere and just decided to go ask for it. Even though I said that idea come from nowhere, deep down inside me I know why I want to ask that it's because…

"It's just… you know that I'm not like normal person and can't actually have fun in doing anything so..." I stopped, my mouth can't reproduce the word that I want to say, it just seems like the word stuck in my mouth. She turned her whole body and facing me while giving me her emotionless looks that she used when the situation is really serious.

"You're scared."

….

Yeah. What she said is right on the spot.

That may be actually true, yeah it maybe just me scared of going down that path. If that someone who can only enjoy from people suffering is me, then I'm scared that maybe it's better to end my life than to see other people suffering and the one who enjoy and causing that is me.

I know that I shouldn't be like this. I should have finds a better healthy way of life and never ever to have the thought of going down of that path.

"Don't worry about it, I know that you're scared because of how different you're from normal people but inside I know that you're not that sort of person."

"Thanks Elisha, I-I really need that…" I said thanking her honestly from deep down my heart, She smile slightly at me and I know that she will tease me about it later so I will clear the misunderstanding here right now. "I-It's not like that okay? Well you know about the future and all. Because of you, I feel that something that's been weighing me down has been loaded off."

She closed her eyes and shook her head "What are you going to do without me here? Though I think that as a kid you don't need to think about your future yet, there's still some time until you go to school so until then just lives your life to the fullest."

Although you say that what can I do to enjoy my life? What is the purpose of my life? People in the news always said to not let the kid at my ages to be corrupted and follow the evil path, but…

"If what you've said is true… Then what is the whole point of good and evil in the first place?"

"Feels free to think about what is the definition of good and evil, because there's almost no point thinking about it in the first place. For example if you take the life of your enemy then your ally or partner will think that as a normal action meanwhile the enemy will obviously think of you as evil because you've killed one of their ally, there's no point in thinking about good and evil because all humans no matter what have both of the quality in the first place."

I closed my eyes and let the words proceed down into my brain and understanding the meaning behind it. Looking down at my cup of green tea, I met down with the reflection of myself, my brown hair hanging down and blocking my view.

"If it's like that then isn't good and evil is just a side of one coin respectively?"

"Yes, if you put it like that then it will make more sense for someone like you. How about…" She paused for a while before what seems like an idea popped up into her mind. "Think about this, if sometime your life is like a coin, there's good and evil, right and wrong, all of that is just one whole coin for us to think and to choose how we want to live."

"Then what do you consider wrong and right?"

This time she did not answer me and she stay silent until I realized that she will not answer me, I let out a sigh and stared at my reflection again for the second time today.

Swallowing my saliva, I gulped down one whole cup before asking Elisha again. "Have you…" I trailed off a bit, not sure how to interpret it but steeling myself up I decided to ask about it. "Have you killed someone?"

…

…..

…..

And the whole room temperature turned down once I say that, it's only metaphor of course but I can see that Elisha also has a hard time trying to answer my question. Her face is emotionless as always which made it hard to know what she's thinking but when I look closer, I can see that though small there's a hint of sadness in her face. From that I can know that she…

"I have." And my question was answered at the same time in my mind and by her answer. Her face is looking grim and her eye looks a bit sad when I mentioned the whole mention of killing someone. For a minute both of us didn't say anything but after several seconds, finally Elisha spoke up again.

"You're not going to ask what my reason was?" Elisha asked me, and stopped staring into nothingness to turn her gaze at me who still in the kitchen.

"I won't…" I answered truthfully, sure I want to know why's she doing that, why did she kill someone but at least one thing for sure is that I know she have her own reason to do it and I won't pry any further if she don't want me to.

"If what you said about good and evil is true then at least I can rest easy thinking that a person who's kind like you must've a good reason to take another person life."

"And why do you think I'm kind? Even though everyday I've been doing nothing but ordering you around. If you think I'm really a kind person then why do you think I'm not even taking care of you?"

"That's for me to decide whether I'm going to deem you as kind or cruel person no? In some side maybe I can say that you're cruel and cold but beneath that I can see that you're kind enough to at least have a feeling to care about me, even though you didn't show it that much."

For a while none of us say anything and my brown eyes are staring back into her surprised looking yellow eyes. Then after approximately ten seconds, her whole body started to shake a bit and she started to snicker before she let loose a small laugh for the first time I've seen her in my life.

That…

I don't expect that, never did I expect that she will show me her whole hearted fully laugh. The most she does when I'm around was snicker and smiling a bit but she never laugh when I was around, that's what made me surprised.

Eventually her laughs begin to subside and she looks at my eyes again this time, it was accompanied by a small smile. "You really trust me don't you?"

I shrugged off my shoulder while replying. "I've no choice in that matter. It's the least I can do to pay my debt to you, by trusting you with my life."

"That's good and all, but thinks a little about putting your trust in someone ok?"

"Mhm" I nodded, still feeling little uncertainty about her honest laugh, it's the first time I've seen it usually she just give me a small smile but she never laugh. That's why I was surprised, maybe there's more than I see with human emotions.

"I wanted to ask you this, why are you suddenly laugh?"

"Is it wrong to laugh? Laugh or smile is a way to express enjoyment or happiness at something after all."

"I'm surprised, I never thought of you as someone who can say that. I think that you won't care about this kind of thing."

"For all of that talk about knowing other people feeling, don't you know why I am laughing?"

Yes, it's true. While I may cannot fully understand the whole mechanics of human emotions, I can at least sense when is the time to ask something or when's the time to stay silent. Human emotion is a complex structure that one can't hope to achieve to understand the mechanics behind it. Fortunately my skill(curse) allow me to sense other people feelings although not perfect, at least now I can sense whether person is sad, angry, happy, etc.

"I can read people's feeling but I can't read their mind alright?"

"Heh such a convenient tool, if you can read other people mind then do you think you don't need school for the time beings?"

"Don't you think the environment where the child growing is important too?"

"Ah right, there's that factor too huh?" She said agreed with the idea while nodding her head several times.

Then after a while none of us say anything and I know that Elisha is already feeling quite tired and decided not to be too insensitive I stay silent. Elisha's attention turned back to the TV and I was too busy watching the scene in front of me.

It showed a man in his 20's wearing a hakama while wielding a Shinai(Practice weapon used in kendo). In front of him is his opponent which has a similar stature as him. The man charge and swing his Shinai at his opponent with a speed that's quite fast for my eyes. Then after the attack connected with his opponent's body, he distanced himself away from his opponent and fixing his stance.

It was an amazing move for me who still did not have the strength to do that move yet. I think it was pretty amazing that human body can do that sort of thing but Elisha who also watching the same thing at me did not even look surprised at all if was her expression did not even change and it remain emotionless as she lazily watch the man beat up his opponent with a move that's fascinating me right now.

Not long after that, the news about the kendo championship is ended and seeing there's nothing else to do I get up and go to the courtyard and enjoying the morning sun.

The morning sun is shining beautifully as I walked around the courtyard with no real purpose at hand. I turned my attention to the dojo and felt my curiosity picked up, I go to the dojo with the intent to do something that I want to experiment a bit.

Sliding the door of the dojo with my small body was quite heavy but I managed to do it, before when I see Elisha sliding the dojo's door easily I believe that I can do it too but it seems like body type is important for all sort of things too.

Stepping into the silent wooden-made floor, I can't help but feels relaxed at the sight of the clean reflection of myself when I was standing on the wooden floor. Yesterday I've made sure to clean every inch of this place when I was feeling bored and I'm relieved that at least the hard work that I've made was being pay off.

The interior is clean and there's also shinai lining up beside the wall. I usually go into this place when I'm trying to relax or train my body, like push-ups, sit-ups, etc. But even though today I don't want to do any of that, I will settle to just sit silently while looking around.

Proceeding to do just that I go to the corner of the room beside the Shinai and think about what I'm going to do today. I closed my eyes and thinking that today I will go to the park to meet with some kids and interact with them and hopefully made some friend to "play" with.

That aside though how I'm going to have "fun" and "play" like other kid do? In the first place I don't even know what is "fun", will making friends regained my emotions back? I don't know about any of that because in _this_ life, I've never had any person that I can call friend.

I opened my eyes again and the sight of the silent dojo greeted me. Nothing is going to change if I don't do something, if I'm just going to sit around do nothing then I won't be able to change. I must find the purpose of my life, my wish, my reason.

Relaxing my body once again I look back to the sun that's shining through the window, from here I could see that it's still not lunch yet since the sun is still not above my head yet that means it still morning or close to lunch time. If lunch is already come then Takagi-san will usually come to here and cook something for us, free of charge of course.

Turning my head to the Shinai beside me, I stand up and picked up one of the Shinai and tried to copy the stance that I sometime seen in the TV. I swing the Shinai and imagined an opponent in front of me, the swing was struck at my imaginary opponent torso.

I practiced the stance that I've mimicked through the TV and swing the Shinai a few more times before my body tires out and I fall to the floor while panting quite heavily.

 **And done.**

 **In here, Issei think and believe himself to be empty person and don't have emotion at all. But it was shown that Issei can at least smile albeit unconsciously without the person himself noticing it. how can this happen? It will be revealed sometime in the future. Issei will regain his emotion back, and will have his own ideal.**

 **In this chapter, it was just a whole character development for Issei. I can't just made Issei into overpowered protagonist in one chapter without a real reason can't I? I'm sorry if this chapter was boring for all of you who read this but I think it was needed to show Issei's life when he's adopted by Elisha.**

 **And then there's also my OC. Elisha in this story act like a parental figure to Issei so that Issei can at least grow up like a normal child despite his constant feeling of emptiness. In this Issei can be anything because of his empty state, if he was told to become a teacher and study to become one then he will do it, if he's told by a killer to become one then he will do it.**

 **Issei was lucky that Elisha found him and Elisha is not completely irrelevant to the story, she's an OC that I made but she has quite a story with the canon main character. If you look closely about her appearance then any DxD fans will know about the canon character she had relationship with.**

 **And for Issei's house, I'm sure that it was familiar to our certain-red-haired-blacksmith-magus.**

 **In the next chapter Irina will show up and maybe lots of OC's going to show up in this story too because I think DxD world don't have enough human in it because Issei will stay human in this story.**

 **As for Issei's power… It will involve heroic spirit but I'm still reluctant to put Zelretch in all of this mess because the heroic spirit won't be in the card form but…**

 **Oh well I'm still not really sure about the whole Zelretch class card but one thing for sure is that Issei will face a lot of problems with heroic spirit.**

 **And then there's a grail too…**

 **Because I've an exam, I may or may not update the story for a while.**

 **Well, enough to be said. Please give me a lot of reviews and sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, I'm still new in this writing fanfiction so I apologize for any mistake that I've made and gives a lot of reviews again!**


	3. Someone to be called a friend

**Sorry for the slow update!(1 month). But since the chapter too is also longer than usual, I hope it was worth the wait. Reason for the slow update is not because of the long writing though it because one reason:**

 **Unlimited Exam Work**

 **So with that said I hope all of you can understand why. I also have prepared chapter 4 and I only need a day or two to finish it. On to the review! One of you said that it's a bad idea to merge the magic system and I can see why, because just like what the reviewer said it's almost impossible.**

 **Considering that it's different universe and written by different person I'm not saying that DxDverse magic is bad. Calculation magic is actually awesome, Ajuka Beelzebub [Kankara Formula] is actually pretty badass by the way.**

 **In the future Issei will use magecraft obviously but maybe I'm going to experiment with DxD magic too, because seriously despite its potential it was rarely used in canon. DxD world can actually become so vast considering that almost all of the myth and their gods are there, but because canon Issei is devil the story is focused toward the three factions.**

 **Back to Issei condition, I don't have any say in this since he's really screwed up at this rate. Will Issei become evil like Kirei? Our favorite creepy priest that enjoy other people suffer? No, I can't write an evil character like that, I've tried it once and it didn't come out well. The reason he's like that is not just because of fire, he doesn't realize it but he's not empty anymore.**

 **Irina show up in this chapter but I'm sorry if she didn't turn out to be like her canon self because it's the first time I try to portray someone character in first person view. But don't worry because in the future, she will be the usual cheerful Irina.**

 **This is also the first time I try to make up the conversation as natural as possible, so any constructive reviews will be appreciated.**

 **That aside though, thanks for the reviews! It really put me at ease that at least some of you out there want to read my story even though I really like to write I didn't think that people will leave a review and fortunately all of you break my expectation and hopefully this time too I hope all of you are satisfied with this chapter.**

 **Warning Bad Grammar! I'm serious, you've been warned.**

 **Story Start!**

The silent atmosphere filled the living room when three of us are eating on the same table. I steal a glance to my left and take a while to observe the woman beside me, a woman with long chestnut brown hair and pair of light brown eyes. Takagi Kazumi our – former – housekeeper is eating silently and sometime switching her gaze to the other woman in this room.

Elisha – being the usual calm person she always does – doesn't notice the stare she got and continue eating at usual pace. And me Hyoudou Issei, a kid with amnesia case is eating in the middle of both of them while feeling uneasy about the current situation. It's normal for them to do this, yes maybe it sound weird but because both of them have an almost polar opposite personality, they often ended up quarreling about it though Elisha usually give up because she don't really want to take any part in the argument.

Takagi-san always pushed Elisha to learn how to cook and at least clean the house for herself. Simply put she wants her to do housework by herself and not relied on me. While Elisha believed that she didn't need any of housework skills and just live the way she wants to. Fortunately Takagi-san is kind enough to not force her to not stay in her room every day and since I don't think that Elisha is suited to do house chore, I just ignore their short argument and stayed up silent.

Takagi-san though after some minutes passed finally gives up the idea of persuading the blue-haired woman and resigned to keep her idea to herself by turning off her glare at Elisha and continue eating normally.

Yep today is also a normal day for me.

*Scene Break*

"Goodbye Issei-kun." Takagi-san said while waving over to me who still in front of our house. "Say goodbye to Elisha for me won't you?" She said before releasing a sigh. "Honestly, always running away from me… I swear one of this days she will suddenly move to another town just to not letting me see her."

I chuckle slightly at that statement "No way, Elisha won't bother to do something like that in the first place." I said while casually made a dismissing gesture with my hand.

"I suppose you're right, though I will more appreciate it if she herself comes out of her way just to say goodbye to me." She said while putting one hand on her cheeks and let out a small giggle.

"Don't worry about it Takagi-san, Elisha must want to say a thanks to you. Just the fact that you already come to our house and cook for us despite Elisha didn't offer anything is already good enough reason for her to say thanks."

"My, my, Issei-kun you're really holds a great impression about Elisha?" She said with surprised expression but behind that expression, I can see a tint of relieved feeling. I guess she relieved that I think positively about Elisha's behavior?

"Despite her usual attitude, I believe that Elisha has good enough reason to do what she does today." I said while still believing that whatever "job" that Elisha do every-day have more priority than our household situation, and even though I said it like that, it's not like she didn't get any money from it.

Even right now our current finances is being supported by the money that Elisha got from where-I-don't-know, but since I can't imagine Elisha doing stealing money online from her room, I will just assume that she got it from her job.

"Ufufu, I guess that's what make you such a charming child~" She said and I don't know why but when she says it like that, a shiver run through my back as if warning me.

"That aside, I heard that you will go out today? How nice, I wish that my daughter could go with you but she couldn't care less about having fun like others."

"Eh, you have daughter Takagi-san? I never see her around you."

"Well, my daughter Murayama is kind of shy around someone that she doesn't know yet and prefer to stay in our house. If only she will befriend you then at least I will be glad about it…" She said with a smile. Even though her mouth is smiling, her eyes are looking at the distance with sad expression.

"Did she ever come out of the house? I think I saw a girl with brown hair carrying Shinai in your yard when I was walking around your house yesterday."

At my word, Takagi-san's expression become brightened up and replied to me "Oh! Yeah, it's her! That child start to taken liking toward Kendo and since then she always practiced with the Shinai around our house, though she sometime went out just to stare at your house."

So the one who's always standing in front of our house and staring at me with jealousy is Takagi-san's daughter, I once considered her to be a weird kid trying to get into our house but it seems like I was wrong. And if what Takagi-san's about Murayama's affection toward Kendo, I think I know what she want in our house.

"Maybe it's because our house haves a Dojo to use for practice?"

"Oh? So you say that since my house can't afford to have Dojo so she's jealous because the house next door haves it?" She said while putting on a rarely angry expression, in fact I think it was the first time she use it on me.

Realizing my mistake I quickly apologize in hope that I don't make our relationship worsen, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean that Takagi-san…" I said to her in hope that her anger will be calmed but when I look at her face I didn't expect that she will show me her smile.

"Fufufu, I'm just joking Issei-kun, there's no way that I will get angry just because some little thing like that. I just want to see your flustered expression but it seems like I fail again…" She said with disappointed tone but her face still had that teasing expression.

Although Takagi-san's age is that of 28 years old woman, I can't deny that she's still quite beautiful despite what her age say. And for why I know how old she is, even though many people say that asking for woman's age is forbidden, it seems that my neighbor is quite nice to let me know.

Add in the fact that Takagi-san's appearance is almost similar to me, brown hair and light brown eyes. And if I don't remember that fire from where I lost my memories, I almost think that Takagi-san is my parent because of our appearance.

But she's not my mother. My real parent died in that fire and will never come back.

"So you purposefully do that to see my expression?"

"Well… compared to Murayama, you seem to be worse than her."

Worse? What did I do wrong in front of her that she seen me like that? If my memories serve correct, I don't remember anything that I done to make her angry or sad.

"What do you mean worse?"

Then her teasing smile disappeared and her expression change again to that grim expression Elisha used when I was asking her this morning.

"Your face seems to always hold that… kind of empty? I can't really put it but the way you talking to other people seem to differ from how people normally talk…"

I… see.

So I do it unconsciously. I know what I'm searching for and will do whatever it takes to get it but since knowing that to find that happiness is nearly impossible I always search for a way to reach that every time. It's because I always do it every time that I always unconsciously showing my lack of emotion to everyone around me.

But that's why…

Precisely because it's almost impossible that I stubbornly seek for it.

"Ah, I'm sorry to bring up such a topic. That aside though, what about the dojo? Do you think that Murayama will be happy when she can practice around in suited environment?" Takagi-san said to me while feeling sorry about her previous words.

Actually it's fine. I don't mind everyone calling me that because I think that what she said is really make sense. I think that Elisha also noticed it too and purposefully let me going out today to let me vent out some of my stress. I guess despite her attitude, she really cared for me huh?

Remembering that I was still in conversation with my neighbor, I answered "You can always use it, you know? It's rarely used after all and I think that the dojo will be happy to be used by someone who loved to practice."

"Ara, such a strange statement you made. But thank you Issei-kun, I will think about it later, maybe Elisha will allow me to use her Dojo for Murayama to practice with."

Well our Dojo doesn't really used for some times and I never seen Elisha bother to check it out anyway. And its only haves been cleaned and used by me, I think that Elisha will allow it since it doesn't have any purpose if it was not used.

"I will ask for her permission."

"No, No, you don't need to do that Issei-kun, it's an adult matter after all, I will ask for it myself." Then she look at her watch and realized that our conversation have taken more times than what is needed. "My, I didn't realize that I've taken up so much your times, I must go now."

"It's fine." I said while trying to make a smile toward her. "It's for your own daughter after all."

"Why, thanks for your compliment Issei-kun. See you tomorrow."

I wave my hand at her and she replied by beamed a small smile at me before finally leaving our house.

Now that Takagi-san is already leaves our house after washing all of the dishes. My responsibility to clean the house is finished, I decide to go to the park after this, then when I reach the living room Elisha call out to me. Complying at her call, I go to her and find that she's already in her usual position – Resting her head on one hand – only this time, she didn't watch TV.

"What is it Elisha?" I asked, curious because Elisha usually didn't talk to me if I'm not doing something important or if I don't ask question to her. In a rare occasion though, she will call me when she's feeling bored but like I said, it's rare.

"Come for a second will you? I don't want to say it out loud."

Yeah, if one of us is screaming out loud – in one of a time it was me who scream – Takagi-san, being our good neighbor and all, will check if something happen.

But I don't think Takagi-san will hear it though, she right now must've already arrived at her home and since I doubt that whatever Elisha will talk about is something that requires either one of us screaming at each other, I don't think that it was necessary for us to talk about it silently.

But since her expression is still that of the serious calm, I don't want to argue with her. Nodding, I sit at the opposite end of table and facing her face to face.

'What am I going to do with this kid' I think I hear she said that under her breath but I dismiss it and just prepared for what she will talk to me.

She sighed before taking on serious expression again "What I'm going to talk is the things that you must not do to any other kids when you go out understand?" She said with serious tone.

Sensing the seriousness in her tone, I comply at her order and changed my sitting posture to search for some comfortable position in case that her explanation is long enough to make my legs go numb.

She waited for me and continued "First of all, makes sure that you don't talk with kid like how you talk to me or Takagi. I don't want other neighbors saying some weird things to me about you." Then she muttered something about 'Troublesome' this 'Troublesome' that.

If it's only that I already know, after all they're different both outside and inside. I've learned the difference between children and adult, their way of talking, physique, and mindset is almost completely different. Children who still don't know the harshness of the world will maintain their innocent attitude is what I think as 'Correct' in my mind.

The way I see it in my view children is what I mentioned before and considered correct in my mind. This is what my mind tells me because I've seen many children do what I mentioned before and because of that my mind deemed it as the correct because of the familiarity.

This will be different if what I've usually seen is children doing something different of course. The keyword being if but now that it's already come to this, I can't change it neither can I go back to past and change it.

Meanwhile adult is a different matter altogether… They're still human of course, they have feelings and emotions. What made them different is… I can't put it together but their mindset and their view of seeing the world is different right?

And of course this is just my view about the difference between the two of them. I can still miss something because no matter how careful I observe both of them, I can't perfectly understand human. Heck, even what I thought about the children and adult before could be wrong since I don't even really understand myself as human.

But of course there's always an exception.

I'm still a kid – specifically 6 years old – with age less than 10, I have a good grasp about what the world will tell to me in the future so you could say that while my physique is that of a kid, my mind is older than my own body. I don't know what is causing me thinking like this but it's like my mind automatically processed down the thought and producing the most logical answer for my question.

Have I smile unconsciously before? I think that Elisha had once mentioned it to me, I think I was smiling when Elisha was happy. Did that means when others happy that caused me to become happy too? No, it's not like that. Many people in the TV usually smiled but I've never get some sort of happiness from that sort of things.

Damn it, I can't understand myself anymore.

Something in my mind always told me to stay calm and think logically about almost most of the situation almost as if preventing me to show most of my expression. No, it's not like that, almost the opposite. I just don't understand human emotion as whole, precisely because I can't understand it, I can't express it that much outside.

I'm like a kid who can't show their expression clearly in the outside but the reality is that I just can't understand the human emotion completely and can't do it much except small thing like "smile" and that is if I was consciously willing it.

It's wrong, kid shouldn't thinking like this, _human_ shouldn't belike this. I know that I'm different than most of the kids around here but just the thought of me thinking something along this line is something that kid shouldn't do right? Human shouldn't be like this, no matter how strong they put an act to stay strong deep inside they should've a feeling, an emotion.

If I was something like this then it made me no different than a machine.

But no matter what I can't help but feels that something is missing deep inside me, something is missing that make me different from other human. I can still smile – albeit small – if I will it, for that I'm grateful. I don't know what I will do if I can't even do so much as making a small smile.

I'm lacking something that made people human as whole.

"Hey." Elisha's voice called out to me and I nod at Elisha's statement, she continues and my worried expression did not let go unnoticed by her gaze but she didn't say anything about it. "You're still with me right? I'll just skip along small stuff so… Second, don't treat what others kid saying seriously, if they're insulting you don't be provoked, they're usually joking about things like that."

In the first place, I think that I wouldn't get angry if I was being insulted. Not so much if I'm being generous, but I still have a thought about what would I do if I was angry. So far in my life with Elisha, I never get mad, never get sad, never let out a shed of tear anymore since _that_ day.

"Finally the last, don't hurt or bully anyone." She finish while gulping down her whole drink. I just nod lightly at that, I already know about it already though.

I always have this strange thought about what is bullying. But I think that bullying is sometime done by someone who wants to prove their superiority by hurting the one weaker than that someone and showing everyone that someone is stronger and capable of leading the one who's lower than him.

Other than that, I can't think of any other reason anyone wants to bully someone.

"Don't think too hard about your future kid, you're still a child, go enjoy your childhood. It's fine to vent out your frustration or stress sometime too you know?"

So she said…

But I don't feel any stress from doing housework or other activities. I just going with the flow and ended up in here, I don't frustrate over things maybe because I think getting angry over small thing is meaningless.

"Elisha, you said that to enjoy my childhood but how am I going to do that?"

She let out a sigh obviously annoyed at my question but answering nonetheless "Look, I'm not the best person to talk about this kind of things you know? If you want to, ask Takagi or her uncle, I heard that her uncle is supposed to be some sort of biker."

"No, you know that I'm not going to do something like that…"

"I suppose you do huh? Then what? You want to live your whole life just by staying at home and not even going out to interact with others?"

"I... I don't know, I can't even make sure anymore…"

She let out a sigh and her expression is telling me that she's annoyed at my question "Look… If it's like that then it's not that you're lost because you don't know how to enjoy your life, you're just scared that you don't have place among other people. Just because you're different, doesn't mean that you can't get along with others, in fact since you're different that's what makes you unique are you not?"

Letting her words processed into my brain, I begin to considering how I'm going to live from now on. It's really hard to think about how to live your life if you can't even enjoying something simple like making friend, I'm not scared that I will be alone, what Elisha has said is true, it's just an **if**.

It's not like I will really scared that I will be left alone just because I don't have friend, all I want is just a simple piece of happiness for a human that has so much flaw like me.

"So you want to go or not? Just to make sure, I won't be here sitting all day waiting for you so if you don't have anything you want to say, go outside and get some friend to play with."

Playing… huh?

"Come to think of it, I've never seen you playing or doing anything other than staying in your room."

"That's… adult matter. Just go away kid, the conversation is over." She says while showing me her usual expressionless face. Isn't this one of the moment where you usually gave off your smile? But oh well, I don't even think that she will do it anyway.

Yep surely nothing will go wrong today.

...

Alright, I've said before that nothing will go wrong but…

What am I supposed to do?

Currently I was in the park sitting on one of the bench while seeing a lot of kids playing and laughing happily. Lot of them haves a happy expression and a smile was showed on their faces as they play and get along with each other.

I know that I'm different than any of the kids in here but I can't help but feels that I supposed to "play" like any of them doing in here. Maybe it was my body – which is still a kid – instinct that told me to play and do any of that kids do?

Like, I know that I suppose to make a friend but what am I supposed to do when all of them is seeing me as weird kid and regarded me as strange? Heck, none of them not even tried to talk to me. Am I supposed to come close to them and introduce myself to clear up the misunderstanding?

I haven't even done anything yet and they already made their own impression of me in their mind. I suppressed the urge to sigh again. Anyway, though that I'm unintentionally have made a bad first impression to the kids in here, doesn't mean that I can't made a friend with any of them right?

I don't even know what did I do to get them have such a weird impression to me. I just sat in the bench waiting for any other kids trying to talk to me. I thought before that if I wait long enough someone will try to talk to me, I have seen other kids who also done the same thing as me and they in the end have someone tried to talk something to him/her and finally become friends.

Except for me, anyone didn't want to talk to me.

Maybe I must introduce myself to them? Like "Hey my name is Hyoudou Issei, let's become a friends." Like that? No, no the kids are not stupid enough to dismiss their impression of me just by me doing that. I must do something more, no let's not think about doing something flashy right now. But in regard of making friends, none of them have tried to approach me or talk to me.

Damn it, I blame my communication skill. I have tried to talk like how any other kids do but the way I talk is always by taking into consideration of how opposing party felt and their emotions. Basically I always do things logically and trying to talk like normal kids would is something almost-impossible for me.

As if I'm some kind of machine.

While my mind is trying to think about what to do from here, I spotted a strange scene. An orange haired kid, he – no, she seems to trying to persuade the group of girls to do something. The group of girls though seems to not agree with her which leaving her alone. It's hard to hear what they're talking about from here, but it seems to be weird.

Especially that orange haired girl, she seems worried about something. Her cheerful expression falters and her smile disappear when the group of girls leaves her alone.

No it's the opposite it was she who was being shooed off by the girls.

Huh? I don't expect to see something like that in here. I just thought that children are something simpler but it seems like it is more complex than I thought huh? When they sad because something didn't go the way they expect is something that I can't expect to understand.

Maybe they're not yet understand that everything will work out in the way they planned?

No, no, I must save this thought for later. But It's not like it's only the children who do that, there's also an adult that believed that he/she never do anything wrong and will try to shape the world instead of shaping himself to suited the world. It's just basically come down to the point of view of each person and how they see the world actually.

She seems to fails to persuade the girls and she walks away from the girls and it looks like, she also haves something bugging her, something which make her worried to no end. Even though the children didn't seem to notice that but I do, she was clearly sad but no one tried to comfort her?

Why is no one tried to talk to her? Why is she seems so sad just because she was rejected?

The orange haired girl is trying again to persuade other kids – This time the boy group – to do what I can't hear it from here though it seem like she's really desperate to get others to agree with her. Again she's rejected like before with the girl group, this time I could see it. I could see how she trying to hold back the sadness from showing it on her face.

It's fixating me to not know what she's hiding about, it's also make a small part of me angry to see a children trying to act strong like that. But I won't force her to let out her thought, not when I don't know anything about her yet. Then her action next is what making me worried, she seems to ask about something to the boys while pointing her finger at me. Did she ask the boys about me?

What? Did she will come here? If so what will I ask her about? What will I talk to her about? Should I comfort her about her sadness? Should I support her as a friend should? Wait, is she want to be my friend? Many thought is running in my mind at the same time, it makes me confuse about my future action.

Then the girl came to my spot and for the first time, I finally hear her voice clearly.

"Ne, are you that strange kid everyone talking about?" The voice said with a curious tone. Though the phrase is a bit rude, I will forgive it anyway. Standing in front of me was the orange haired girl from before, now that I look at it closely, her style of clothing is a bit weird for a girl of her age to wear.

She's wearing black tank-top and short which is obviously an outfit designed for a boy. Her purple eyes are staring at mine as she looks at me with curious look. If not for her quite high-pitched voice and some feminism feature on her face, I think I can pass her up as a boy.

I switch my gaze to the boy group who seem to arguing about something. And then I know, that this girl has also tried to persuade the other kids but fails to do so and since there's no other kid are in here, this girl decided to talk to me?

And of course it was just some speculation, really how old am I again? Six, okay this whole logical thinking based on assumption isn't making any sense for a kid like me, if I'm doing this again just to prove some silly things like this again…

I think that I really need psychiatric.

"Me?" I asked her while pointing my own finger at me, still feeling uncertain about the whole "strange kid".

"Is there anyone around me right now?" The girl said a bit rudely. I know that it was unintentionally but the way she said it mean that I'm the most different than all of the kid out here, she's still a child too so I will let it pass since I don't think she know what it mean to be strange.

I've not really pay attention to her expression, but I can see that she's not really sad anymore. Instead now she is strangely a bit happy about what I don't know.

"If by strange you mean unusual, then all of you in my eyes are strange no?" There, it comes again. Even though I've been warned to not talk like I was in front of older people. I can't help but accustom myself to talk like this with other people, adult or not. I just hope that this girl didn't hear me say it otherwise my chance of making friend with her will pass out.

"Well… will that make both of us weird?"

"Going by my statement before, I can't really reject that."

Then second passed, second turned into minute until her whole body began to shudder slightly before from her mouth erupted a laughter filled with pure happiness.

Wow, I don't really expect her to do that. Never in chance I thought about something like this encounter will happen today, just a moment ago she's sad about something and in the process of broking out into tears but after meeting me all of that was replaced by the happiness. First it was Elisha who did that this morning and now it was this girl, is today the day of happiness?

Back to my situation, she's the one that really fast to switch her emotion huh? One moment she was sad and later she's happy and laughing at me.

"Something funny?"

Still clutching her stomach, she managed to let out a word "H-Ha, No. it's just that, I never meet someone like you before." She said before continue laughing.

"Someone like "me"? What do you mean by that?"

"You didn't deny it right? Then that means you accept that you're weirdo?"

"Aren't you the one who said that "both of us"?"

"Really? I didn't remember it that much. Maybe because you're weird you didn't remember what you said before?" She said innocently while whistling as if she doesn't do any mistake and to further proving her innocent, she smile at me the way she never show it to other children around before.

"Well…"

I don't want to hurt her feeling so I keep silent lest that I want to ruin my chance of getting to know her better, it's now or never. I can't risk up to mess up my relationship with her, so far it's so good. She's laughing and certainly feels a bit happy around me so to deepen our relationship I must…

Ah, damn it I must have done it unconsciously again. I thought that I can think and talk like other normal kid around me but it seems like old habits die hard huh?

She regains herself and then staring at me, especially she's staring at my eyes. Why did she do that? Is there something wrong on my face?

"Did you know? How strange is it?" She asked me curiously while staring at my face.

….

Wait, what strange is she mean when she's talking about me? Is it because of my way of talking? No, ever since I come here I never once opened my mouth to talk to other people in here, so using that assumption it is impossible for me to be regarded as strange. But then why is this girl, here called me strange when I'm talking, no wait maybe-

"What kind of strange are you talking about in the first place?" I asked confused about what this girl talking about, honestly it's still a little confusing to me how I bonded with unusual people so casually. First it was Elisha and now it was this tomboy girl. I don't want to mention Takagi-san since she's kind to me so I think I can pass her up.

"Eh, you don't know? Everyone is avoiding you because of "that" you know?" She asked me disbelieving while having confusion mixed in the tone, meanwhile her finger is pointed at my face. Is something strange within my face?

Then realization hit me when she pointing something in my eyes.

Ah, so as I thought it's really my eyes that make other avoided me huh?

Others must have thought of me as strange when seeing that someone like me – A kid – have this some sort of weird eyes as if I'm a lifeless person. Yep, although I can't say for sure but Elisha once said that when she found me in that fire it was worse, much much worse actually, because my eyes were the same as dead… Like someone without a soul…

… As if I'm already dead once….

No! I can't let some sort of strange thought bothering me. I shook my head a bit to snap out of myself.

I let out a tired sigh at the revelation and stared once again at the girl. "And why aren't you avoiding me like your friend does? Why talk to me?" Though I knew a small part of her reason was to ask me to accept her idea like she does before with her other friends, I decided to ask it since no matter what it's just a speculation not the real truth.

"Why do you care about other people thought? If I want to become your friend then I don't need other people permission right?" The orange haired girl said cheerfully. That's completely unexpected even for me. I then realize that at that time I don't have to be pessimist and paranoid at all time. Then as if not caring about my feelings or permission, she shoved me to the side of the bench and sit beside me.

"See? If we're close like this then we're friend right?"

Heh.

What a simple thinking, I almost forgot how child can become so stubborn and simple-minded like this. Oh wait, come to think of it I myself is a child right? I turn my head to the side and meet with the face of the one that called my "Friend".

I don't know how or why but the moment she declared herself as my friend, her expression has changed to that of one of those carefree children again. Did she felt happy because she becomes my friend? What did I do to make her happy like that? I'm just some kid who's regarded as strange by others.

I stared at her for a few second before she noticed it and turned her head at me. And then she smiled at me, but something is different about it. I often saw Takagi-san's smile and Elisha's smile rarely but only this is what I found to be the most interesting thing I've ever seen in my life.

"Aah…"

And then at that moment I see something incredibly beautiful…

A genuine and the most radiant smile I've ever seen before was plastered across her face. Not even Elisha, not even Takagi-san smiled at me in such a way before. How beautiful and happy is it to be able to live your life with a smile like that?

What is causing her to change I wonder? Can I smile like her too? A smile made out of pure happiness not from purposefully making it to become a "Fake" smile.

She tilted her head to the side indicating her confusion. Oops, I must have stared at her for too long huh? "I'm sorry." But the reaction that I got was something that's unpredictable for me. "No, it's fine. It's not like people are paying me to stare at my face!" And then she let loose a small laugh.

"Hmm… I think you're pretty nice for some strange kid, I didn't know why they avoided you because of your eyes though."

"Thanks for your compliment young miss, though are you don't really mind me to be your friend? You don't find it scary? You're not afraid of it?"

"Nope! It's your inside which is worth more not your appearance, if I become a friend with someone who only have good appearance but a jerk inside, then what's the point of becoming friend with someone like that?"

I never thought that I will hear this girl talking about something complicated like that. I thought that she's only some a little unusual tomboy girl but I think that I don't mind having such a people around me.

"If we're friend then an introduction is needed right?" I ask the girl beside me with monotone, the answer that I got though is said in the cheerful voice in contrast with mine

"Mhm" She nod and smile at me again, seriously though just a moment ago she was a mysterious sad girl who I didn't know anything about and now we are talking in such a comfortable manner as if we're friend from long time ago.

That is of course just my thought about her attitude. She's so pure – Almost too pure – and untainted by others. I can see it in her. I wonder what's inside her mind and what can make her smile like before? Like none other can?

"My name is Shidou Irina, nice to meet you…" The now-named Irina say.

"Hyoudou Issei"

"Alright, Ise is it then!"

Eh? Ise?

That's… certainly weird, my name has never been shortened by other people around me before. Elisha always call me "Issei" or just "Kid" and Takagi always add "-kun" as the honorific, but never did I was called by nickname. I guess this is one thing to note from having a friend huh?

"Shidou-san." I called out to her but-

"Irina." She stopped me and just from that I know that she demand me to call her by her first name, but I was told to be polite all the time so I can't call her that much less when we just met a minute ago.

"Shidou-san."

"Irina." Again with that stubborn attitude of hers, it's like how she persuades the others kid before. It's exactly the same, she wants me to call her Irina but I thought that calling someone like that is only allowed if the person in question is already close enough with the one who calls her that.

Ah, again my thought is straying off somewhere. I must've watched too much TV and reading too much book. It's the same again with how I think logically about this silly thing of calling each other without honorific, even though I can just call her Irina – like how she want me to – to solve this problem.

But again, she calls me "Ise" – which is a nickname – so it's sound plausible for me to call her Irina too right?

No no, it's not proper for strangers to just use each other name without honorifics. At least that's what the book tells me, I called Takagi with honorific –san because of her Japanese origin but Elisha is another matter. Just from her name I can already guess that she's not Japanese and when I called her with Japanese honorific she feels weird to be called like that so I respected her wish and call her directly.

Because of Elisha, I tend to call Takagi-san with her first name instead of family name but after knowing that if I'm going to live in japan for a long time, I prefer to get used to it. Takagi-san is also respected Elisha enough to follow her wish and call her normally without honorific.

Still that does not change that Shidou Irina, the girl in front of me is a complete stranger.

So it was obvious that the common sense depict tha-

"Alright, this is getting out of nowhere Shidou-sa-"

"It's Irina! Really how hard is it for you to say my name right?"

I put my hand as if to means to stop her trying to say anything more. "Irina-san."

"Just call me Irina, like how I call you "Ise" without honorifics just call me Irina!"

"Irina." I mutter her name in the silent breath as to not having her notice. I finally give up with her stubborn attitude and called her like what she wanted to. It feels strangely relieved for me to say that name, maybe it was because Irina is also different from others that I relieved to see someone like me?

But when I think about it again the answer is no, no matter how different she is from normal kid, all she does is just being different than what most girl of her age do. She doesn't have the same emotional problem as me. She's just different from others because her attitude and clothing is a bit more tomboyish.

She's not like me, if I'm blank that can be filled then she is a pure and untainted jewel. She already found some sort of happiness in her life, whether it was in the past, future, or present. But me? No, my hope to found happiness and enjoyment in my life is so dim that it almost next to none.

But maybe, maybe someone like me can found some sort of happiness in the form of something that I didn't expected.

Noticing she's glaring at me, I snapped out of my thought and stared at her face again. Gone were her smile and it was replaced by pouting expression, as if she's demanding something to me and I didn't granted it. "You…" She started.

"You thinking something weird about me aren't you, Ise?"

…

How does she know that?

Are all girl haves this some sort of skills that enable them to read the mind of males? A sweat run down from my cheeks as I noticed her stare become more painful for me to bear. Please revert to that carefree smile of yours from before again please.

"No, look I just think that it was weird that someone like you wants to be friend with me. You said it yourselves didn't you, that I'm weird?" I question her. Though, I'm trying really hard to not let out too much stutter because of her stare. But fortunately the painful stare quickly disappear and instead she put on a dumbfounded expression at my question.

"You're really weird Ise, I already said it before that your appearance means nothing to me. Weird or not does not matter, all that matter is your inside." She said while giving me a dumbfounded looks once again.

Ah… okay it's a good thing that she think positively about me. Her mind is still in the developing state. Add into the fact that children are usually ignorant to the rest of the world. Almost not caring about what they do and what the consequences of their action bring.

One thing to note again, don't try to use common sense against children.

"Then why are you spending your time talking with me instead of playing with other children out there?" I ask her who're swinging her feet back and forth, and when she's still playing with her own feet, she turned her head to me. "I want to befriend you because it seems like you're lonely, so I suppose you should thank me Ise!" Irina said while stopping her current activities and puffing out her almost non-existent chest.

"Well, thank you I guess? You're not exactly wrong about that part though."

So she said that but…

I can't help but feels that something is amiss in her expression before she met me. So I decided to ask it since I don't think that she will tell me first "Irina, can you tell me about yourselves? Not that I have any interior motive but…" I trail off not sure how to interpret it. It's just that I care enough about Irina that I want to know about the source of her sorrow from before.

"Sure!" And she completely breaks my expectation once again. I once told by Elisha to not think too much about complicated things because for children their mind – which is still developing – must learn things from time to time, in a process. You cannot just dump all sort of information to a child who's still learning to adapt in their environment.

"Papa is always loved me and always buy all the things that I want to, I love him so much and when he told me to go and play with other kids around my age, I did that and he always smile at me whenever I talk about my experience after I come back from the park. Even though I only rambling about my experience, he always cheering on for me and often teach me about all sort of things about the Christian." She says cheerfully while looking deep back in her own thought.

"Wait, wait. You're a Christian? I thought that you're Japanese?"

"Mhm, even though that someone is from Japanese origin doesn't mean that you can't have other religion than Shinto right?"

"I guess you're right, then your mom?"

"Well, Mama often constantly nagging me to study more and reduce my playing times because she said that I've played too much but after I study she always cook my favorite food so my study times is worth it! Mama also always brought me a lot of interesting things like this one time where she bought me some sort of necklace cross that can shoot laser!"

A… cross? That can shoot laser? Really? Is such a thing even exist? What kind of people made them anyway? I guess there's more than what I thought about the people in this world, there's lot of things that I needed to learn more from people.

"Your parent seems like a nice person."

"Yep! My parent is the best parent in the world! Someday I want to be like them!"

The best person that you can idolize from your childhood is your parent huh? I once thought about it too, how would it like for me if I have a real parent? Elisha acted like a guardian to me and Takagi-san only comes to my house out of her own free will to help Elisha so I guess it did not count.

But I think even if there's no one that I can have to be some sort of someone that I can look up to and want to become like, then I will just find my own answer and become someone that I don't regret. Irina though just like what she said is already content with her life right now, she's already happy, loved by her parent.

Her parent is always pampered her and loved her so much like how any normal parent would do to her children. I'm glad that she was happy about her life. Just from the tone that she used to talk about her loving family is enough to know about what she feels about her parent. But then…

What makes her so sad before she meets me?

Irina continues "And then, and then! I discovered that there's so much someone small like me, because I always see my father I always compare him to people around here. All of them look so small compared to my father! Almost all of them were so picky about choosing friends and even go as far as to make the 'boy group' and 'girl group'!" She finish while muttering something about 'Everyone should be friend'.

It was quite funny actually, at the part when she says comparing children to her father and how everyone is so small. Ahh, I wish to be like her. To be someone who can see the world with that cheerful attitude of hers and to have even a small part of her happiness.

"Somehow though, when I tried to talk to the girls for the first time, they are staring at me and call me weird. I guess it's just because our style of clothing but until now I can't see what's wrong with my clothes." She said while looking over at the girls who still playing with their house and doll.

"And? Did they become your friends?" I ask her still a bit worried that in case other kids in here are bullying here just because she's tomboy and a bit rude if I must say for a girl.

"Yep! Though I must follow their ground rules a bit, like how this boy is the leader one and the game we play is, etc."

"Is that fun? To play with your friends like that?"

"Although I was first confused by their rules but after some time it's actually easy enough! So yeah I have fun! Able to play all sort of things with others kid around here is actually more fun than I thought!"

That's good, I think that she was being bullied by the other kids just because she's a bit tomboyish but fortunately that's not the case. I don't think that I can hold myself peacefully talking with other kids around here in the future if that was the case though.

"But it seems like you're arguing something with other children in here. Care to tell me?"

Then she turned her whole body to me and come closer to me. "You see it right? See those girls over there!" She said while pointing to the group of the girls from before "I suggest to them that we're playing other kind of games but they don't agree with me saying that "Irina you're weird, what kind of girls want to play that?" See? I'm not the wrong one in here!"

At first please make some distance please? You're too close. Your body is touching me in all sort of place especially your leg, see? They're touching my vital place. Your face too, it's too close that I can practically hear her breath right now. "Alright Irina, please calm down okay?"

"No! I don't want to! I want to play some sort of role playing show like those in the TV but the girls said that it's better to playing house or doll, isn't it weird?" She asked me with confused expression. Well I can't blame her for that, her strange tendency aside isn't the reason she's being shooed off by the girls before is because she's a bit more tomboyish than other girls?

"Because I didn't follow the ground rules, I was kicked out just before because I make a weird request…" Irina says while looking down at the ground clearly she was sad about the result of her result, but I don't think that she's the wrong one in here.

No, I don't think that the children in here are the wrong one too. They all want to play but the idea of them 'playing' is different in each other mind, so they have no other choice but to abide to the one who have the higher authority than them.

And judging from what Irina said about ground rules before, I have already knows who this leader was.

"And the boy? What did they said about your idea?" I ask sheepishly while still trying to gain some distance from my newfound friend.

"Mhm, I already tried that but see?" Once again her finger was pointing at the children this time the boy group. "They steal my idea and kick me out because I'm a girl and not suited to their play! Isn't it just horrible Ise?!" She whined meanwhile I dismissed her stare and let my vision wander to the mentioned boy group.

True, it seems like they're playing some sort of role-playing. The boys though seem to have disagreement because some of them want to play the hero but there must also have the villain thus the argument. Ah, some of them finally seem to agree to let the others play hero and they begin to reciting some sort of lines that comes from the text.

I do a face-palm at the scene. Seriously why do all of the children really want to be the hero? It's just role-playing anyway, it's not even real.

"Are you sad that you don't get any play in that?" I ask her who's still staring at the boys.

She shook her head a few times before answering "Sure I am sad and all about this, maybe this is the first time that someone mentioned about it."

"You don't tell it to your parent?"

She shook her head in negative answer, "No, I don't want them to make them sad but even though I don't get what I desire, I got something better in place of that."

Then she turned her head to face me while saying

"It's because I found a new friend that is ten times better than that sort of play that I was happy!"

A smile.

There…

It's that smile again.

An unknown feeling that I can't recognize rises up inside my body at that moment when I see her smile.

I can't understand it, sure maybe for normal person they must be happy that they have a friend, someone to play with and maybe rely on in the future but one thing I can't understand is how can she become that happy when all she do is just making a relationship with someone like me.

I can't become happy like how she does. Just making a friend is not enough for me to reach that sort of happiness, I live a peaceful life, have a good friend to talk with, but that's not enough. I'm empty. I can't have happiness like other people.

Laugh? Never did any of that.

People become happy when they succeed in something and sometime will do what they can so that, that so-called-happiness last longer and keep working to reach higher at what they've succeed. But I think that when I succeed in something I won't get anything from that.

Even now talking with Irina, I felt some sort of strange feeling. This strange feeling that I can't put it into a word is what I felt right now when talking with Irina.

This some sort of false hope is what driving me to live my life. To search for an answer in my life, I think that I've been born in this world to do something, and if I know what it is, I will finally found the reason of my life.

I must search for it, so that my life can have a meaning, so that I can die satisfied with the answer of my life and die with a smile knowing that I have done my dream.

What a selfish person(monster) am I.

But even still I won't give up. I can just live my life like a normal person and die without getting an answer and maybe when I go to heaven I will found it in my afterlife.

But even still I won't give up. I will found the answer in _this_ life.

"Hm? Ise, why do you smile? Is there something funny?" Irina's voice snapped me out of my thought and only then I realize.

"Eh?"

I… smiled?

I reach out my cheeks with my hand and noticed that my lip was quirked up.

What… What did I do to make me smile?

I unconsciously smile? Even though I don't will it, I smile?

An unknown feeling was urging up when I see Irina's smile, I think it was at that time too that I unconsciously smile.

Is that unknown feeling… happiness?

Is that what called Happiness? Enjoyment? Pleasure?

What must I do to get that feeling again?

Only then that I finally found my hope-

"Hey Ise!"

"Huh?!"

When I finally realized, Irina is waving her hand in front of my face as if to check if I'm still conscious or not. "Geez, what're you doing. Sleeping in such a place like this is not a good thing, you know?" She says with a sigh.

"Well, I'm sorry. I just lost in my thought about something." I say while making a "sorry" gesture with my hand. She seems to accept that well and ask me again

"Ne, what did you think about before? You seem to really focus back then. It's not about hero playing that we talking about before right?"

That's… not what I think about. Yeah I just lost in my thought about my future and happiness, I just found my hope of happiness and when I think that I was one step away from it, I lost it again. But still, this means that I can still regain my life as human, I can still get happy but by what I don't know.

The only thing I know is that when I see Irina's smile, I get some sort of unknown satisfied feeling. As if I've done something that I take pride in for. Did I get happy when seeing other people smile? No, there's more than that.

But that means I can still become happy like other people can. I've found some sort of hope for me to become happy.

Ah, oh yeah. Irina's still in here, I must save this thought when I reach home. Right now it is better for me to focus on the matter at hand.

"You still want to play that sort of thing?"

"I… yes. I want to but I'm afraid that if I ask you to do that, I think that you will leave me like other kids would."

No way, I won't do that. I won't ever do that to you, not if I'm still living in this body and mind of mine will I do that to you.

But even so I kept silent. I'm not replying to Irina's statement nor will I refute that, it's better for me to be silent this way Irina won't bugging me about the whole "hero and things".

"I-I really scared you see? When Mama and Papa leave me alone in here with the other kids, I'm really scared. Papa said that as long as I'm kind to others, other will treat me the same but…"

"It didn't go as planned?"

She nod at my word and continued while maintaining a sad smile on her face "Everyone said that I'm strange because despite my gender, they think that I'm weird for trying to be like a boy. But I don't think that I'm wrong, Papa and Mama didn't even comment on my outfit so I think that the ones in wrong is-"

"No." I stopped her in track and voiced my own thought not allowing her to continue "You're not the wrong one in here, Irina. For that I can promise you."

"Right? Then surely-"

"But it's not the children fault too." My word stopped her and she resigned and looking down at the ground obviously feeling conflicted about my word "Listen here Irina. No one is at fault in this. Not the children, not you, and obviously not your parent. All of them haves different view on how they sees person, some sees them from outside like how the children do it to you and some sees them from inside like how you judge me Irina."

That's right, she just sad because she thought that she didn't have any place among the children in here, because of her unusual attitude for girls of her age and difference in her mind. Just because she was tomboy so what? Inside she's a girl too even though right now she's a little blunt for a girl.

She said it herself that she has been loved and spoiled by her parent when she was in home but because of that too, that when she's placed among the child of her age and being regarded as strange must made her felt sad.

She said that she haves fun with others but I don't think it's all there's to that…

Because usually she was loved by people(parents) around her and when thrown among unknown people and regarded as strange by the people must've saddened her.

But that smile?

That smile back then when she first met me? Did she faking it?

No.

From the moment I lay my eyes on her I know that there's something bothering her, something bugging her and making her worried to no end. With my unique ability(curse) it easy to know what she's worried about actually. She just worried that she won't have any friend. Scared that she will be left alone while others is having fun without her.

That's why she was so happy back there when she befriended me. That's why she quickly regains her happy expression. That she's so happy and that cheerful smile of hers when she met me is also the reason I think that she must've felt happy because she thought that she have found another person like hers. She thinks that she haves found her equal and someone that will not thrash her like other will before.

Unusual is what made us similar and quickly bonded us, while she's regarded as unusual for girls of her age because of her tomboyish attitude, what made me different than other kids is my lack of expressing emotion and understanding it, if it's like that then I can accept it, she felt happy because she have found someone like herself. Someone different than the others, someone she can make fun of, play with, and relying on.

Basically all she need is a friend in a same boat for her.

And that someone is me.

Shidou Irina is the first friend of Hyoudou Issei.

Nothing will change that fact.

"But then-" Her voice stopped dead in track as she stares at my eyes, I guess even though she said that she didn't scared of me, this kind of eyes is really weird for normal people huh? Back to Irina's complaint, I didn't even need to use my ability(curse) to know what will she say if she's not stopped.

Who's the one to put the blame on?

Is what she going to say before I stop her, I allowed a "fake" smile formed on my face as I continue to talk with her "You don't need to blame anyone about your unfortunate luck, it's a natural order for this world you know? Sometime you will get a bad luck and next time you know you may just get a good luck without even noticing it."

Her eyes went wide the moment I said that and the next things I didn't expect is that she smiled at me again and turn back her attention to the other kids who playing around in the park with peaceful expression as if she already found her answer.

"Mhm, thank you for pointing that out to me Ise, I almost let my anger get the better of me." She said with a small 'Tehehe~' and I do the same as her by observing the children playing around. "About what you said before…"

"Hmm?"

"About the natural order, I think that I already have a good luck…" And her smile this time although small held the same amount of happiness when she first met me. But even if she's already happy I can still see the longing presence in her eyes when she's observing the boys playing.

"You still want to play it right? Even though you know that you can't do it with just me?" She nod at my question and didn't said anything further maybe because she didn't want to force me to play it with her.

Alright so it's like this.

Irina want to play the role-playing of some hero and villain – which seems like taken straight out of TV – but because the girls doesn't want to do it, she resorted to asking the boys and ended up being alone and the boys take her idea for themselves, and that itself would explain why she's asking me to become friend of hers.

Doesn't mean that she's using me to satisfy her wish alone though? A small part of my paranoid mind told me that but, the answer to that is no, she's really asking me to become her friend out of pure will. And for that I'm grateful, so I guess I should've help fulfilling her wish huh? Not like I've any choice in this, it was either this or letting her become sad.

Thus the choice is clear.

Turning back my attention to Irina, I found her staring at the boys who according to her "Stolen her idea". Noticing my stare, she sigh and back to swinging her feet back and forth again. "Ne, Ise? If there are only two of us then do you thinks we could play something like those boys over there?" She asks me suddenly.

Why only two of us? And why does she need to ask about it? If she wants to play then just do it, it's not like my opinion matters anyway. I will do what she wants to do and follow it but it seems like she's worried about something. Then I gazed at her again this time diving deep into her and found that currently she's worried, about what I don't know.

"Are you worried about the "Hero and Villain"?"

Irina gives me her nod and continued "I'm just worried about when I thought that only two of us, only one can be a "Hero" and the other must be a "Villain"."

"And why are you worried about the "Villain"?"

"It's wrong to do bad things, and villain does that all the time."

….

So it's like that. She is worried because the whole "hero and villain" things. She must've believed that because in the most heroes show, the entire scenario of role-playing is consisted of the Hero beating up the evil Villain. But since there are only two of us, only one of us can become the hero and the others must become the villain.

For that I'm grateful because she too must've considered my feeling to some extent, because if not then right now she must have forced me to play the role that she doesn't want.

"Irina." I call out to her who's still deep in thought, she seems to take notice of it and turn her head to meet mine "What is it Ise?"

"What do you think about "Hero"?" I ask her. Meanwhile she is taking the question more seriously than I thought and taking more time to answer the question. I guess even she did not even have the clear answer about what is hero huh?

"Well, I think that hero is the one who help the weak and the desperate. They save them and protect them and make everyone happy."

"Then where's "Villain" role in all of this?"

"Eh… that's…" Irina's trail off, and she seems to be in panic inside her mind. Oh well its fine, I don't even expecting that she will answer it anyway.

"If it's like what you said then isn't it simple?" I say to her and she hears my word have her face turn up and looking at me intensely.

"There's no need to have "Villain" in your story. Everyone can be a "Hero" in their own way. You don't need to have "Villain" to become a "Hero". All you need is just to do what you've said before, help the weak and the desperate right?"

Irina's look at me changed at that moment when I said that. Her stare become something akin to amazement and I can't help but notice some sparkle in her eyes.

"Y-Yeah! Why don't I ever think of that! You're right Ise, the two of us can become a hero! With me as the main hero and you as my sidekick we can become the true hero!" She finish with a cheerful smile as if she found something meaningful in her life, she begin to have some hallucinations about her future.

Yeah, I'm not lying about what I said to Irina. Everyone is already a "Hero" in their own story, basically a "Protagonist" in their own life. I just alter some part of what Elisha said to me this morning when I ask her about "Good" and "Evil".

I'm just altering what Elisha has said to me this morning and just like she said, there's almost no whole point in thinking between good and evil. You just have to do what you believes is right and not regretting it later.

In some point one who slayed the evil one will regarded as "Hero" and "Protagonist" but the other ways around the one that "Hero" slayed, in other word the "Villain" is also "Protagonist" in his own journeys. Even though the "Villain" is evil that doesn't change his role as a "Protagonist" in his own life.

That's why you don't need to feel to be overshadowed by someone stronger or better than you.

Just live the way you don't regret on and be proud of how your life turned out because it's the result of your own action, not of someone controlling you.

Everyone is already a "Protagonist" in his/her own life.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but Irina…" I say to her who's still having delusion about when she becomes a Hero and me as what she said before? Oh yeah, her sidekick.

"Eh? Why?" She asked me with disappointment.

"Because it's already late." I answer her question while pointing to the drowning sunset, indicating the coming dark.

"Oh! Yeah, I forgot about it!" Then she got off from the bench and then turned to me before leaving. "Ise! Don't forget about coming tomorrow again alright! I want to show something to you tomorrow!" And she finished while waving her hand and running toward her house.

"Well… I guess I must come back home? I already made a friend and I think that I've found something meaningful in my life when I come to here." I say to no one and prepared to go back to my home.

Ah, I think that Takagi-san haves already came to our house considering how late it is. I don't think that my talk with Irina and all sort of thought about my future life could take so long.

I must thanked Elisha and Irina for this.

*Scene Break*

"Ise! You finally come. I thought that you will stay in your house." Irina says to me who still struggling to stay awake. Yesterday I was staying up awake too late. I'm reading some of Elisha's book and since it was in English, I have no choice but to read it while checking the dictionary. Almost all of the books in our house were in English and considering Elisha's name is not from Japan, I can guess why Elisha preferred English over the Japanese.

I ended up didn't get much sleep because of translating it, turn out the storyline is quite good though so it's worth it. I also learn a bit of English from that story so I guess it's like killing two birds with one stone huh?

"Yeah, I just can't leave you alone in here when you're waiting for me. It won't do me any good if I make a friend waiting right?" I say to her and a yawn escaped from my mouth after I said that.

"Yep! Though are you alright? You don't seem to be well today, did something wrong happen yesterday?"

"No, there's nothing wrong. Let's get going, you said that you want to show something to me today?"

"Oh yeah, but before that Papa said to me that you can come to my house to play and Mama already prepared a lot of snacks for us, want to go?"

"Up to you I guess? But if you want, let's just play in the park for today, who know maybe tomorrow I will go to your house."

"Ehh? Oh well, it's not like I expect you to just come to my house right away."

"It's alright to hope you know?"

"Yeah, oh, the thing that I talk about yesterday is "this"!"

Irina's showing me a picture, one where she's standing while smiling and made a peace sign, beside her is some kind of ornate sword, it seems to be some kind of decoration but seeing this sword I can't help but feels some kind of unknown feeling when I see this sword. The sword itself though, didn't seem to have any distinct feature other than it was sheathed in beautiful gold decoration and the hilt seems to be made of green jewel.

It seems to not made for battle and just like what the picture show, it just for a decoration purpose. But then what is this lingering feeling that I have when I see this sword? I never meet any sword like this, never in my life I've see this with my own eyes and yet I feels some kind of unknown feeling almost bordering dangerous when I see this sword.

"This sword…" I want to ask something to Irina about this sword but it's stuck in my mouth for some reason, I don't know why but I think that it was better for me to not ask about this to Irina. Not because of my mind telling me the danger that I got from seeing this sword but I think that Irina doesn't know any further detail about this sword.

"Something wrong Ise?" Irina's voice snapped me out of my thought and when I look back at her, I didn't notice it but I started to sweat when I see this sword. Did I afraid of the unknown feeling that I got? Yeah, the human's instinct inside me screamed when I see something unknown like this.

"N-No, I just remember something about this sword…"

"Huh, you've seen it somewhere Ise? I thought that there's only one sword like this, Papa said that this is one of the most valuable thing in our house more than our own house he said."

"Really? For just one sword, it seems to be important things for your dad. Why did he hang it in your house?"

"I don't really know but he said that it was dangerous and told me not to touch it."

Dangerous? So there's really something other than normal decorative sword, I know that normally parent should not allow their child to play with sharp object but since I just got this bad feeling that told me that this thing is something that I should avoid at all cost, I can't help but wanting to know what is the secret behind this.

I rarely get scared about something and when I got into danger, usually I always predicted how to take care of it. I don't know why but when I see this sword it's like this sword is dangerous by any means, not because it was an object that could be used to kill a person but because it's something that shouldn't exist.

"Irina, I think that maybe tomorrow is a good thing for me to come to your house." I say because the curiosity got better of me. There's a say about curiosity killed the cat, but from what Irina describe to me about how his parent always pampered her, I don't think that I will be killed anytime soon.

"Why not today? It's still not late yet you know? Papa's also there today but tomorrow he will gone for business."

I can't risk coming into such a thing without preparation. Now, I'm not the type that will just believe something that came out of blue until I seen the proof itself so I will just think that sword is more or less a strange decoration but if by any chance it was related to something un-normal…

"No, it's better for me to come tomorrow. I already got a plan to do something today and it won't do me any good if my plan is cancelled."

"Hmm, well I think that's fine. I won't force you to come but feel free to come anytime alright? My house is always open for you." Irina finish while putting the photo back into her pocket.

I don't think that it was good for Irina to trust anyone easily though, I know that I should feel grateful toward her hospitality but if in the future she's still the same – easily trusting stranger without knowing the detail of them. Then it was better for me to tell her about the danger of the future ahead.

Granted I'm not exactly stranger but I'm not exactly her close friend either, I'm her new friend who just befriended her yesterday and she's already trust me enough to not doing anything strange within her house. But I also don't want Irina's trust in me to fall and I still want to keep our relationship and possibly in the future deepen it.

Oh well I'm just going to warn her about it.

"Irina, I don't think that it's good for me to come unnoticed to your house."

"Mhm, you're right but since Papa and Mama always said to me to be kind to others I think that this is correct way for me to show you my kindness."

"So your parent is the one that told you to do that?"

"Yes! Papa always told me to greet and show respect to older people and Mama told me to offer any kind of hospitality to other people, they also said that friendship is something amazing and should be treasured. So, yes! My parent is amazing!"

"I'm not going to stop you but please be careful in the future, you can't just invite strangers in your house without getting to know them better."

"Eeeh~ you're no fun!" She pouted and started to run to the center of the park where it was filled with children playing around. I follow up and finally catch up with her, since I was walking and she was running this is starting to become more tiring than I thought.

Where did she get such stamina anyway? Come to think of it, isn't other kids around me is also running around this park with seemingly limitless stamina. Even though I said that, that doesn't mean just walking and running a bit is tiring me.

It's just strange to see that with such a small body, child could seems to running around, playing for a long time with what seems to be infinite stamina. This was of course just an overestimating children, I know that if serious, even normal adult could take on the fastest children.

"Ise, you're so slow! If you can't catch me then where's the point in playing tag?"

"Wait, right now we're playing tag?"

"Of course you silly, there's no way that I will just running around the park without purpose right?"

I didn't answer and when I'm near Irina I reach out my hand to her intending to tap her shoulder when I thought that my hand will touch her-

She suddenly hopped to the side.

"There's no way that you can catch me with that sort of skill Ise!" Irina said happily while trying to run away again from me, meanwhile I still trying to catch my breath because of the sudden acceleration.

But despite my ragged breathing, I still trying to catch Irina because if not then what's the point of playing? Seeing Irina's sad is something that I don't want to see so I just go along with her plan.

And finally what seems to be forever, Irina stopped running and stopped when she sees something that caught her interest. I too stopped trying to grab Irina and my interest was pointed at the scene in front of me.

There's a group of boys in the corner of the park doing what seems to be playing soccer? I just thought that because they seems to be kicking something on the ground, but when I look closer it's not a ball or a thing that they kicking.

It's a person.

*Snap*

Something snapped inside of me when I see this scene.

That's wrong.

People shouldn't get a treatment like that.

I was too busy trying to gather my piece of thought to care about what is snapped within me. I look at Irina beside me, I can't risk hurting other children and I don't want Irina to get into this mess so the only plausible action that's in my mind right now is…

I know what I'm doing but I'm doing it almost unconsciously. Because in my life I have been showed by various kind of human side, my mind decided what's wrong and what's correct.

And right now it's told me that this kind of thing is wrong.

I shouldn't be like this, I don't have any feeling toward the bullied ones and I don't feel any pity to the bullied. Maybe it's cruel but that's what I am.

But now is different.

Irina and Elisha must haves changed me without me knowing anything. Because when Irina told me how Hero is the one that save the weak and how Elisha told me to not hurt someone without good reason is the moment I think that I gain something new inside this empty heart.

Seeing the world in black and white, the two of them have changed the way I view the world. "It's wrong to do bad things." Irina once said to me. "The type of people you said is usually someone who upholds justice." Elisha once said to me. It was at that time I felt something changed.

That's why my mind decided it's wrong, despite me doesn't have any feeling toward the one who's bullied or the one who do the bullying I still need to stop it. Something told me to stop this kind of thing. That something must be what I gained from Elisha and Irina lecture, I didn't need to know what it is.

It's something that should be done instead of something that comes from my own self. Acting without heed for what I want to do is what I'm doing right now. And it's not like I have something that I want to do in the first place.

My body rushed in through the line of the boys and tackled the unfortunate boy who's in the line of my sight. I purposefully do it in the least harmful way since I don't want to hurt any of them but if there's some injury, at least it's just some sort of bruises that can be covered up in bandages.

The group stopped their action and all of their stares switched from someone behind me to me who still in the ground after tackled one of their boys. Uh oh, I think this is not good. I'm not really sure how I can take on the full group of boys but I think that I can take out 2 or 3 kids before I pass out. But it's only if I was allowed to hurt them, I'm not allowed to hurt them in any ways so it's better to escape.

Decided that it's not a good idea to take them on, I pulled the hand of the one that was bullied in the first place. I nearly gasped when I realize how white the hand that I'm pulling, it's too pale that I almost think that the one that I'm trying to save is already pass out.

And then I look at the owner of the hand.

This time I really gasped when I see the figure before me.

A little girl with white hair as white as snow and skin too pale to be human was what the best way to describe the figure before me. If not for the dust and the dirt that she got on her clothes and skin I think that this albino is something really beautiful to look at. Something so ethereal almost as if taken straight out of fairy tales, something so out of _this world_ was laying in front of me while staring down at the ground.

I don't know whether she was crying or not because I was too busy staring at the one which I thought seemed to be out of this place, no almost as if this girl in front of me was not from this world. I'm not exaggerating it at all, she really looks so sacred but why are the boys were ganging up on her? She seems to realize the source of the pulling sensation and bought up her face to meet mine.

Red eyes like those of ruby were staring at my brown eyes as if observing every moment that I make. White hair, pale skin, and pair of ruby eyes…

Forget about fairy tales, I can't deny that this girl in front of me look like the fairy itself.

Yes, I think that I will call her fairy if not for her red ruby **empty** eyes which were staring at mine.

She's like me, empty eyes devoid of emotion and feelings. Plain emptiness is all there is on her eye. It's like she doesn't have anything inside her just like a doll, a puppet given life by her master. No, she's even worse than me. She's even worse than me almost like a newborn.

It's like… it's like she was a doll given human form. But certainly there isn't anything like that right? We're in the era where the human have moved on to the technology so there can't be any supernatural world out there right?

But I can't shake off the thought that this girl in front of me haves some relation with supernatural – well except if there's scientist who created this girl of course. White hair, red eyes, all of this is unnatural in the eastern country like this… It's almost as if she…

Almost as if she isn't human at all.

I snapped out of my thought once I heard one of the boys was yelling at me, he's cursing me and talking nonsense about getting rid of the "Evil". I glanced to the silent albino who still look up at me while having confused look – though she didn't really show it, the only reaction that I got was from her tilting her head to the side so I'll just take it as a sign of confusion.

Without so much as making any noises, the boy with dark blue hairs already launched his fist to me. His punch is strong. That much I've already know by his body which dwarves me, and from his fist I know that he use it frequently and it was strong enough to make me pass out after taken 5 or 6 but as always there's always a weakness.

His fist does not have any accuracy at all.

It's actually easy to dodge this kind of thing, just by ducking a little or sidestepping to the side is actually enough for me to not meet with his fist but then I realized the fatal flaw of my plan…

The girl.

If I avoid the punch then the girl will obviously take it and it will just be replaying things like before all over again. Looking at the boy's face I was surprised that the boy is smiling meaning he already know about this.

It was now or never. This thought running in my mind as the time around me seems to slowed down, leave the girl leaving her bullied and beaten up or take the beating and protect the girl. Obviously my survival instinct is told me to just leave this girl, prioritizing my own survival above any else.

But my mind reacted different.

Almost unconsciously I stand between the fist and the girl. Time seems to start again and the slowed down fist reach my face and the blow is strong enough to make me stagger. I look up at the boy and I remember how Irina talked to me yesterday about the leader of the boy group.

So it's him… Is it just me or the boy is grinning at the sight of me?

Then without any time to prepare myself, I received another blow to the side of my head and in less than second my stomach is already struck down with a kick. My body begin to show the sign of falling but I still endure it and took the beating again only for me to stand up again.

I started to take up a defensive stance, not to protect the girl but to protect myself. Doesn't mean that I'm abandoning the girl – No, the boys have already switched their interest to me after I've tackled one of them and took the action to protect the girl.

Thus the meaningless beating started. The kids is smart, actually smart really, really smart to think of something cheap like this – I was given a choice whenever a punch or kick was launched, it was either to take up the blow or just avoid it.

For normal person, it was quite easy choice and for someone like me I already know what I'm going to obviously choose. Of course the wisest choice is to avoid it but then as I've already said before, the boys is actually really smart.

If I avoid it the girl will be the one who received the blow.

A cheap trick, there's no choice in this, it's something that I can't avoid nor can I deny. The option to escape was already sealed the moment that the leader of this group punched me in my face, from that moment my means of escape was sealed tight as the boys did not even gave me an ounce of time to regain myself to set up a defensive stance.

The group consist of four kids all boy in their healthy state and their punch and kick – I'm not going to lie – is pretty good for children. Even though it's like that, I did not mind and sometime spare a glance at the girl behind me who's still looking at me curiously.

Did she even know what am I doing right now? Because if she does then why is she just staring at me like that? Does she know what sort of situation is going on right now?

My train of thought stopped short as a punch connected to my stomach and the only thing I remember from that on is pain…

The beating continued… no it's more like torture than a beating. Forget about bullying, I think I hear the leader of the group screaming about how he wants me to die. For all of their innocence and attitude I almost forgot how children can be so cruel sometime.

My eyes followed the course of the leader's fist. A punch came from the left side of my head I brought my hand up to protect my head but…

 ***Crack***

Ah, damn it.

I guess I broke my left hand. Considering how much blow I take up and endure, it's amazing for someone who has a kid body like me to still standing. But even so I still standing and wait to endure the pain again.

"H-Hey, Kato isn't this enough already? If this keeps up you will really kill him!" I hear a voice but I can't see who is it, I closed my eyes and just prepare for the pain to come. I see a small glimpse of hope when I realized that the pain did not come...

I open my eyes to see and without even knowing what's going on…

A punch met my face the moment my eyelids was half-open.

 ***Crack***

Ouch, I think that broke my nose or something.

"You idiot! Then what's the point of us beating him over if he didn't give up! It was all because of his fault anyway, because he tried to protect that monster girl!" I hear the boy leader shout to his other followers and I can't help but feel pity for him because I swear that I almost hear his tone filled with fear.

"But, that girl didn't do anything to us yet right!? Then why are you keep calling her a monster!?"

"Because she is a **MONSTER**! Look at her appearance! Did all of you here think that red eyes of hers and white hairs are fakes!? No! It's because she was **made** like that!" The leader shouted on top of his lung as he began to getting angry of the other kid treatment to him.

Made? Come to think of it when I got my first look at her, I really think that she's not a human and after seeing her reaction at how I was beaten up, I really start to have a doubt about my theories.

"Then why are we beating him instead of her!? That boy practically did nothing wrong!"

"You didn't see his eyes as well?! Am I the only one who isn't blind in here? Look at his eyes! You think that sort of eyes is the one that kind of human haves!? It's like he's already dead! He just protected that monster because he too is a monster!"

A monster huh? By the fact that I'm searching for something so impossible that a normal human can't hope to understand, I guess I'm really a monster, a selfish one at that huh?

But…

That smile….

How I smile, how I can felt happiness the moment I remember Irina's smile is a small glimpse of hope for me to continue living.

That's why it's not wrong for me to continue living.

I won't die, no I can't die yet, not when I still haven't reach that happiness.

The human desire within me burn strongly when I remember my dream of achieving happiness.

I will endure it…

Even if I still don't understand yet how can I be happy…

Even if everyone will thinks of me as a monster….

Even if I'm empty…

The fact that I'm a human won't change.

And someday…

Someday I will find what do I want and realize it…

That's my dream, even if my dream in the future is impossible to achieve.

Surely this desire inside me is not wrong.

Thud

I can't take up the pain anymore and fall to the ground, I feel a strong kick struck my already fallen body and fortunately I made some distance away after my body practically rolled off the ground like a rag doll.

"Kato! Stop it!"

"Shut up! If you didn't want to look then just go home and stay in your house and never talk to me again!"

"Uggh! Damn it, you didn't make any sense in the first place! Why did you still continuing this nonsense!?"

"Then why did all of you follow my action before huh!? All of you are beating up the boy as well the girl. It was you who brought this up!"

I almost feel sorry for him, I can easily see through his bravado and deep inside I can see that all he want is just acknowledgement from other kids. But the way he does it is wrong. He's proving his strength and skills by beating up people weaker than him. The result is successful of course since he's the leader of the boy group.

But once the kids saw how wrong their leader is, they started to lose their trust. Precisely because of that, he's desperate to make me give up so that he can continue his so-called "Leader" position. If not for the fact that I was on the ground all beaten up, I want to scold him for his action.

"No I'm not! I'm just following you just because you said that this is some sort of "Hero" job!"

"Then all of you can go and I will finish this all by myself!" The leader shouted and I can hear the sound of his footsteps coming closer, despite what he said that he wants to "Finish" me. I don't think that he's serious enough wanting to kill me.

"Wha!? Damn it stop it Kato! You will really kill him if you continue this!" What he said is true, I will really die if I don't get treatment after this.

I swipe the blood leaking from my already-broken nose and without even letting me stand up, the leader's feet is stomping on my chest and I can't help but open my eyes at the pain.

But I didn't do so much as scream, I just turn my head to the side and realized that the albino girl is still looking at me confused but her expression changed a little.

It's something akin to worried, I don't know what she's worried about but the most noticeable change on her face was that right now, her eyes are still empty but now it carried on some kind of concern when looking at me.

I want to stand up but I can't, the boy leader's feet aren't too heavy but my only concern for this situation is my body.

Can I hold up until this group became bored of me? No in the first place I don't think that I can survive after all of this ended. Maybe Elisha will found me? I doubt that she can heal this kind of injury in matter of second though.

"Have you finally gives up yet?" I hear the leader's voice and fully opened my eyes to see the cruel look that I thought didn't match on children of his age.

But regardless I still faintly nod when sensing my life is endangered. My mind basically just told me to go along with it and the wisest choice right now is to give up lest that I want to experience that torture again just to look a bit more heroic for the girl.

Then the boy – Kato if I recall it correctly – lifted up his feet and stomp on me once again before finally leaving me up coughing blood. I can see that the girl didn't look worried anymore and now it was replaced back by her expressionless face from before.

The boy group seems to be arguing something and after they finally finished, Kato the leader walked up to the frail-looking albino with cruel face when he beat me up earlier. I instantly realized what he wants to do and bring myself up to my feet despite the numerous cracking sounds from the inside of my body.

"H-Hey, K-Kato…" One of the boy spoke up when he seen my current state and I still keep walking to the girl with the intent to protect her from the pain and suffering. I don't want her to experience what I've gone through before, not when she's on my field of view.

Every step that I took make unnerving cracking noise from inside of my body as I realize that my inside must be more messed up than I thought, but I didn't care about it all.

It's because I want to protect that girl.

A desire born from myself, not from someone ordering me to do…

But from myself.

And then I realized that something within me changed.

That's right, this desire… this human desire… despite what I thought of myself as empty….

Finally I have a desire…

At long last I have found something that I want…

And finally… I can call myself a human…

For all that talk about monster, it seems like neither me or that girl is monster huh?

I open my eyes to see that the other boys have already started to get scared of me. I didn't want to hurt them so I guess even if my body is like a mess. I can still make them run away in fear huh?

"Don't… hurt her…" I said with my dried up throat, despite the pain that each step I made from walking I still focus my gaze at the white haired girl.

"You will… regret it…"

I'm not trying to sound arrogant but the boy group will really regret it after they finished beating up the girl. Because I can see it in their eyes, their face, their motion, they're scared of their own action. All I need is just warn them to not do it because they will regret it.

Even though in front they're putting up brave act, considering their age it was actually thinkable for kid to act mature and all but deep inside they too are still children and so they will only realize their mistake and regret when they already does said action.

They will regret that they once beat me up and since they already done that, it will probably leave a scar in their heart. And if they plan to beat the girl as well then it will add more scar and maybe it will permanently scarred their heart.

I don't want to hurt them. I don't want all of them to be hurt. I want to save all of them from regrets.

I walk forward not caring about how bad am I look when I'm like this. I can see everyone face cower in fear when I'm nearing them, even though a minutes ago they're punching and beating me all over the place but right now they're afraid of my beaten up state?

If it's like that then my state right now must be really bad to make them afraid of me. The leader's face start to darken and sweat begin to run down from his face as I made my advance toward the girl, fortunately the leader pulled back his punch once he see me near the girl.

Yeah, that's what I thought but...

!

With just a change in the wind pressure warning me, I threw a glance to my left and saw a punch already nearing me very close, I can't dodge it with my body right now. This punch will deliver the fatal attack to my head and from his position I can see where the punch will landed, it will make me stagger a bit before finally leave me unconscious. I close my eyes preparing for the pain to come.

I can't protect her, not even myself…

…

The pain never comes.

…

Huh?

I open my eye a bit and see that the white haired girl is still looking up at me with expressionless face. I look beside me to see the fist that already bloodied up due to beating me stopped an inch from my face, observing again I can see that his wrist is being grabbed by someone.

Someone older than him, someone stronger than him, I look up at the one who have saved me and I'm not surprised that it was a man older than me.

What surprised me was the fact that Irina is hiding behind the man's back.

"Ise!" Irina says out-loud even though I was practically just standing beside her "Papa! Will Ise be alright? We can heal him right!? right!?"

Papa? Irina's dad is here? So this man is Irina father? To think logically Irina was already beside me before I rushed in to save the girl huh? Maybe Irina came back to her house to get some help and finally bring in her father here?

Calculating how far Irina house is from here, it means that I've only been beaten up for twenty minutes? Well it's quite long and for me to be able to endure it until now is already a miracle itself.

Ah… it's no good, I can't think anymore when I can feel my consciousness leaving me as my vision began to get blurry. Did the girl is alright? I can see that Irina's trying to talk to me while her father is talking something with the one who beat me up in the first place.

Before I fall and close my eyes I can see that the white haired girl right now is no longer sitting on the ground but already standing. I see her lip open when she tried to say something to me but I already closed my eyes after that and prepared myself for the pain when I hit the ground.

And then…

Without opening my eyes I didn't even register the pain when I fall to the ground. Why is it not hurt? No why is it instead feels warm? The ground is not cold hard like before but instead it is warm and soft, almost like how Elisha embraced me when I almost die.

"Why… did you do that?" I hear an unknown voice said. I don't know who said it but the source of the voice seems to be closer than I thought, almost feels like it just beside me. I didn't know who said it but its tone and pitch is like that of a girl of my age.

But I didn't know any girl except Irina so who is it? It's not Elisha, nor is it Takagi. It's voice sound clear and like a melody to my ears, it just feels relaxing to sleep in this state while listening to her voice.

I open my eyes expecting to see the blue sky but instead I see the girl pale face up close with her face so close to mine, I can feels her breath and the sight of her face from up close is almost a breathtaking scene if not for the fact that I will die if I'm not breathing even for a second now.

"Why… did you do that?" The albino's said to me repeating her question from before, I see so this is why it's feels warm…

Right now I was being embraced by her arms.

The soft sensation that I felt when I touch it was her skin. The warm sensation that I felt when I touch it was her body. Looking at her face I can't tell whether she's sad or not, despite her expressionless face I don't think she's happy about this though.

"Why… did you do that?"

Do what? I want to ask her, but right now my body condition is more important and I don't want to risk my life trying to answer this girl question.

However I can't stay conscious too long, I must rest so I let my eyelids falls and sleep in her embrace.

… **.**

 **Done!**

 **What have I write? I don't even know anymore, I kind of lost what I was writing when it's about Irina's life. And I've to say it, it's realllly hard to write from Issei's perspective. Sometime I write when he overreacted like canon Issei but then I remember and have to erase it, sometime I write Issei being dense even though with his curse he's probably one of the most sensitive protagonist.**

 **So yeah, to write from Issei's POV is hard and considering that he has the personality of complete opposite of mine, it's hard to do so. But still I tried really hard to make them stay natural and write the conversation as 'normal' as possible.**

 **Lot of OCs and original stuff will be revealed and all of them – I hope – will make sense and logical. Like Sacred Gear for example, I'm going to explain how each of them worked and so prepare for a lot of original content.**

 **Anyone play F/GO? I will just give you one advice:**

 **GACHA RATE UP IS A LIE!**

 **So with that said. Please give me a lot of reviews and sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, I'm a human – of course duh – so I apologize for any mistake that I've made and gives a lot of reviews again! Also if you can please give a useful review though I don't mind any review really, even flame!**


	4. Reason to live

**Ah, sorry for the delay. I did not lie when I've prepared the chapter but there's more urgent thing like Real life, Fate, Exam, Exam, Farming, Summoning, Iskandar, salt, salt, and much more salt. To my DELIGHT I got a lot of Shinjis and other 3* CEs, it was truly something to be REJOICED don't you think? Yorokobe shounen, at last, I finally able to limit break my naked Kirei CE.**

 **Sometimes I wished that FGO would give me something to challenge(not that the Gacha hasn't been challenging enough though) like a raid boss or something. Lo and behold, the new raid boss Ibaraki Douji with her? 3-trillion-hp! I hope that Brotoki can win. Enough about my useless ranting to the review!**

 **-Shorten the monologue. I don't know if this was short or not but the original(30k) has been shortened to current(26k).**

 **-Issei overthinking thing. For a child it seems unrealistic for Issei to think like that right? Well there's a reason, everything has a reason…**

 **-Unrealistic bullying scene. I've to agree with this, the problem is. I need to rush** **thing so I try to included logical reason for this** **, I'm** **very sorry about this.**

 **-Ilya. Originally it was her, I said originally. Then I replayed the Heavens Feel and I honestly feel pretty bad to steal Shirou little/older sister. So I replaced her with another Homunculus.**

 **As for the slow update… well not much to say(Actually there is so much) except that I was busy over these past months. Alright, I think that's all of them. Thanks for all the reviews. I hope that this chapter can satisfy your thirst for good story.**

… **.**

I'm seeing a dream, a dream like I never experienced before.

I don't usually dreaming when I sleep I usually focused to regain back my energy so I don't dream unless it's about something that I've experienced or sometimes that fire.

A dream that was seen from the related person perspective not from outsider perspective like normal dream was. Usually if the dream is seen from first person view then it's related to the person experiences or a past that you can't remember.

But I can't remember anything like this dream. I was in some sort of medieval-aged castle, the wall was made with stone and the window that I passed on is much bigger than my own body.

I was walking through the grand hallway and the floor was adorned in colorless carpet-no the whole scenery was in black and white sometime colorless as if it comes from an old-time movie.

The building is made of sturdy looking stone and the interior castle that I view from this perspective is quite beautiful if not for the fact that the lack of color is quite disturbing.

There are also other people in here, some who I thought was the servants since their clothes is a bit plain like the ones that I see in the film. Unlike in the film this one feels more real, no actually I get some sort of thought that people who passed by me is real people despite this is a dream.

Strangely is that the people who passed up will bow their head at me and leaves before I can ask what's going on. That's when I realized that I can't even move in here, my body is moving without my own consent and the only thing that I can do is watch. And whoever controlled my body will only give them a light nod for everyone who bowed to me whether it's the noble or the servant.

Is this like where I'm seeing something from someone point of view?

Some people who I meet with also dressed strangely, but considering that this is from medieval age I guess I can't even argue with it huh? Is the people who dressed strangely are actually the noble? Maybe it's like that and their clothes seem to be made from more valuable material than the one that servant had.

And then there's also a knight too, one that wear a real armor, I guess that I was some sort of noble person considering how the servants and noble is showing me their respect but I didn't think that the knight will do it too.

Am I some sort of really high noble? One that have much more authority than the knights?

There are some knight who took off their helm and talk a bit with me before leaving me again, but the weird thing is that I can see that they're trying to talk to me but I don't know what they're talking about. It's not because of language barrier because I clearly didn't hear anything ever since I came here.

I can't even hear my own footstep or what peoples beside me are mumbling about, heck I can't even see their face. They have a human figure but some sort of weird fog is covering their face as if to mock me even further is the fact that I can't even see my own body. I can't see what clothes I'm wearing now, my face, my body, my hand but strangely all of that is not covered in a fog like other had.

On my way of wherever I'm going I passed on my reflection when seeing the window but even worse than can't seeing someone face in this dream, I can't even see my own full body not even my face. Every time I tried to catch a reflection of myself it just do the same thing by giving me some sort of distorted image of human figure.

I don't even know if this was actually my body or not, or worse if this is real or not. I still remembered that I'm Hyoudou Issei and certainly this body is not mine by the line of sight, I was taller than my own body right now so that would mean I was in adult body.

So the only possible conclusion is that this body that I occupy right now isn't mine, its other people. Who is the one I occupy right now? What am I doing in the body of other people? In a place that I can't recogniz-?

My train of thought stopped when I can see something on the corner of my eyes. A bright green light, one that's far from me and yet also feels closer than I can see. I closed my eyes when I sense foreign sensation inside my body. I open my eyes again before realizing that I can't open it, what? What happened?

I can't open my eyes to see what's going on but I can feel something, something is moving inside me. I tried hard to open my eyes but to no avail I failed to do so and just stay put. When I try hard to sense what's going on again, I find that the unfamiliar sensation is focused on my left side, especially my left arm.

The sensation where something inside of me is moving – either it is my organ or my bone – it didn't take me long to notice that the thing that is moving inside me is my own bones. I can't see what's happening but it feels like the bone is restructuring trying to fix the wrong and not long after that, the feeling inside my left arm is gone and it strangely feels _correct_ even though I can't hear or see what happen.

This time I tried again to open my eyes and-

I blink.

Once.

Twice.

Huh?

This is… my room? A quick glance around my surrounding ensure my assumption and I feel relieved at this simple fact, one moment I was in a castle and the next thing I know I was back in my room? Well that just simplified thing then, it's only a dream after all.

It's already dark when I look outside and the light is already out, so it's already night-time. I look down at myself when I feel restricted. Not actually true but part of my body was covered in bandages.

I realize that my body especially in the left area was heavy. Ah, right my left arm must've suffered some fracture. I touch my nose with my right hand and surprised that the pain is not as big as I expect it to be, the nose isn't even covered in bandages despite before I was pretty sure that my nose was broken.

Elisha is really skilled for this kind of situation. Sometime I wonder just what is her line of work that made her required this kind of skill.

!

Sudden headache made me unconsciously grip my head in pain, in hope of doing so would lessen the pain. The pain slowly dissipates but the ache is still there, it seems my body is doing its best to force me to rest.

Well anyway back to my current situation. I can't really say what time is it but judging by the light I can see that a day or two has already passed and now it was night-time. And I'm a bit hungry but not really at the point I really need it right now.

I tried to move and was surprised that I can at least lean up without pain. Reaching up to grab the clock on my desk when I can't see too much without dark, I instinctively use my left hand.

"01:12 huh? Come to think of it what date is it?" Well, as long as my recovery is going well, I will just sleep aga-Eh?

I stare at my bandaged left arm which is still managing to hold the clock, I almost let the clock fall from my hand but even though I surprised I didn't do anything except staring wonderingly at my left arm.

This shouldn't be possible, no this is really impossible. Even though my medical knowledge and human anatomy is reaching non-existent, even a child like me knows that a fracture or broken bones should not be able to be healed this _fast_ naturally.

My mind raced back to where I see the green light in my dream. Back then I didn't really paying too much attention about it but, thinking about this right now is weird. In that dream I can't feel anything happening about my body but assuming that the sensation when the dream lasted…

Could it be real? That dream?

I feel unnatural sleepiness inviting me to sleep again, to forget hard things like this. Ugh, not even half a hour has already passed since I awake and suddenly I want to sleep again.

But one thing is bugging my mind ever since I woke up…

Why did I get a feeling that I've seen that green light somewhere?

 **-0-**

Hmmm…

I'm awake by the sound of the door sliding before me, I expected to see Elisha or Takagi-san come to check up on me but what I didn't expect is to see the white haired girl entered my room. A quick glance through the window confirmed my suspicion.

It's the first time that I wake up at day-time. All the time I wake up was always when it's already night, I messed up my sleeping schedule didn't I? At this rate I'm going to become something like batman. My head is clear and the first thing that comes to my mind is what this girl is doing here.

The little albino didn't even bother checking her surrounding and quickly sit beside myself.

Is this one of the moment where I should talk? I remember vaguely about how she embraced me before I pass out but I never ask about her name, she's in here meaning that she must have already talked with Elisha to get permission to come here.

Did she already know my name? Why did she come here? Is it to apologize? But her face did not even hold an ounce of apologetic. Her emotionless face meeting up with mine, I did the same as her by staring at her empty eyes.

It's really becoming quite embarrassing by the time goes on. I did not feel embarrassed but the situation is really awkward now. She did not even blink when staring at me. Even though I don't have any problem with continuing this meaningless staring contest, I myself still had a human body so I constantly keep blinking from time to time unlike her.

"So…" I begin, trying to strike up some conversation with this girl and hopefully can get to know better about her, "What are you doing here?" Let's start with her purpose first, coming here into your apparently savior house without even knowing said savior identity is already suspicious in the first place.

"You haven't answered my question…"

"Question?" What question? I didn't remember ever being questioned by this girl except if she asked it when I was asleep or when-Ah…

"The question from before?"

She nodded at my question, that's completely unexpected for me. I like to think myself as a smart person but smart is not enough to understand the mechanic behind human. No, in the first place is she even one in the first place?

Her very being is screaming unnatural at me, something so alien to my normal view of the world. I pushed away the unnecessary thoughts and opted to think about how to answer her question.

Why did I want to save her? A strange thing to ask.

I just have this stray thought out of nowhere and it's unusual for me-no I never have any desire before.

When she's bullied I just felt that it was wrong for all of them to hurt someone, I don't know how my mind based it but it just felt… wrong.

So yeah, I first acted based on my black and white morality which decided bullying is bad.

But suddenly I don't care about morality anymore and just want to save her, I could just lay my body and wait for the boys stopped bullying her and finally stand and talk to her but I don't do any of that and instead choose the reckless way to save her, but I think it was worth it.

Now I could understand the selfishness of human when they're trying to achieve their own dream. Sadly, I didn't get the urge or the desire again but I'm pretty sure that I can relate my desire with my future now.

"It's because… I want to." I said while giving her my most serious expression that I could make right now, my expression is usually emotionless after all. The unnatural feeling of my choice of wording is still leaving an unknown feeling in my mouth.

"…Alright."

"Eh?" I accidentally let my thought out of my mouth because of her sudden reaction. I don't even think that I can consider her expression right now is an expression, with her ruby-like eyes she's just continued staring at me.

When I stare at her again, her red pupiless eyes bear a strange resemblance to my own. I just can't put it into word what is the difference even though it was as clear as day.

Like… like it's something that's already perfect, something that's already completed. Her eyes are just like that, something that's already perfect from the moment of her birth. Just like a newborn.

Meanwhile my eyes were leaning toward the death. Soulless, lifeless, empty, something that doesn't have any purpose in his life. Just like a deadman walking.

I don't want to waste any time to continue our meaningless staring contest from before so I quickly ask one question that's bugging my mind. "What's your name?"

"…." She didn't answer, most like she's thinking about whether to tell me or not. I mean it's not like she don't have a name right? Even though her appearance is unnatural, a name is one of the most important things in one life.

"Oh, right. My name is Hyoudou Issei in case that you didn't know."

"…I already know."

….

….

This is getting ridiculous over time. I know that she's a bit strange and if I must bluntly say she have a few screw loose in her head if she can't even answer something simple like one name.

That or she didn't have one in the first place.

"Err, about my question from before could you tell m-"

"Sella…"

"Eh? I'm sorry I didn't hear that right."

"Sella…."

My brain quickly registered the name that she spoken and claimed to be hers. Based on her appearance alone, I can conclude that she doesn't even have anything related to Japanese except for her language of course.

But… Sella huh?

Meanwhile the girl in question only staring at me and her position is unchanged for the entire time since she sat next to me. Wow, I didn't think that it was possible for one to sit on such position for a long time without having their legs go numb.

"Hyoudou Issei." Having my name called out I instinctively respond by turning my attention to the one who call me.

"What is it?"

"…You're like me… in a way… you're similar… yet different."

Similar yet different? What does she meant by that? I don't even know what she's talking about in the first place.

"To see a human like us… it's weird…" She said with the tone that I can't comprehend. Again I'm confused by her claim. I mean our appearances clearly differ, heck her looks alone is enough to make me believe her to be non-japanese!

But one thing is making me stopped my train of thought.

'To see a human like us' so she said.

Like us? Something is clearly wrong with that statement.

If I was the human that she mentioned…

What is she?

"Sella…-san, I'm sorry if this is sounded offensive to you but…" Looking at her I know that she did not mind me and my question. Swallowing my saliva, I decided to question her, one question that might change my life.

"Are you a hum-"

"Ise!"

I stopped my question and switched my attention to the source of the voice, turning my head I see Irina, my first friend and the one that has saved me from the one who bullied Sella-san. Granted it's not exactly Irina who saved me but her dad, the fact that it was Irina who called her dad to come to my aid is still there though.

"Ise, are you alright? Last time I checked you're still covered in bandages!"

"I-I'm alright Irina, look my wound is already healed." I said to her while showing my wound. It's not complete recovery, I still can't move my arm as free as I was before but given time I think one week and half is enough to heal it naturally. Keyword naturally.

Seeing my wound, Irina sighed out of relief and turned her attention to the albino sitting next to me.

"Ah, do you already know Sella? She always comes to your house every day since you get hurt you know?"

"Eh?"

So this girl always checks my condition ever since then? She comes to my room every day for one whole week just to wait for me to wake up? Come to think of it, I always woke up when it was night-time so it actually sounds plausible if anyone visited me during day-time.

"That aside, how about you Irina? You don't get hurt anywhere right?"

"Mhm, it was only you who get hurt because of those cowardly boys! They're ganging up on you just because you tried to protect Sella!"

This is the first time I see Irina mad, I always thought that she's a kind girl but I guess every person has some sort of button that doesn't meant to be touched.

"Are they really that bad?"

"They deserve it! When papa scolded them for their action, they just look away and trying to deny the fact."

"Well… they're still children too so it's okay to forgive them."

"But back then you're in really bad state, even Papa said that you will die!"

Death… huh? I don't really think that I really taunt the death that much, considering that I only think about living I never thinks about how I will die and the thought about me dying is never come to my mind even once.

It's natural for human to fear death.

And the fact that I never fear death is also making me question my humanity.

"…You will really die." Sella-san said beside me, she was silent the entire time after Irina come barging to my room so it took me by surprise to suddenly hear her voice again.

"Yeah, yeah, what she said is true! From now on you're not permitted to do that sort of thing again! I've told you that I'm going to become a hero right? Because you're my sidekick I won't allow you to do that again!" Irina exclaimed.

"We're still talking about that?" I asked dumbfounded at her exclaim.

"…Hero?" Sella-san asked in confusion at our antic. Nonetheless I ignored her, because it will cause me too much trouble to explain what she's asking.

"Oh yeah, you never thanked Ise right Sella?" Irina either ignoring her question or didn't hear it, asking a ridiculous request at the white-haired occupant.

"It's not really nice for you to force someone to say thanks." I said to her. Meanwhile the person in question is – again her position remained unchanged – still staring at me silently. Waiting for a while, finally her lip opened.

"Thank… you?" she said to me, however instead of grateful feeling I sensed more of confusion instead of feeling grateful toward me. But I myself didn't really do all of that for someone to say thanks to me, I do it because I want to.

Hmm? Come to think of it this is my first time that someone has thanked me in my life.

"It's fine. I don't do all of that for a thanks."

"Geez, why don't you just accept it? It's not like it would do you any harm to do it and it's also improper to not do so." Irina said to me while babbling out a ridiculous statement.

I think it was more improper to force someone to say thanks though which of course I will never say it out loud to her.

"But I really don't do that for thanks you know?"

"Then why are you helping her Ise? No offense to Sella but the way you passed out kinda make me thought about your motive." Irina asked to me.

I thought about it for a while before asking something that's weird about her question. "Wait, what was I like when I passed out? I don't do anything indecent right?"

"Pffft, no, not that kind of motive I mean. You're different than that kind of boys out there Ise, you passed out while smiling."

I smiled again? Is my happiness is truly something so easy to appease just by saving people?

"I'm happy cause' I help people I guess?" I said sheepishly trying to convince her.

Meanwhile the other occupant in this room is staring at me with various feelings. Irina seems to be amazed by my statement before and Sella-san strangely also staring at me with expression of wonder.

"The way you said it, make you look like a hero Ise."

"Really? I never think like that." I reply to her, and honestly I never think that what I search is something related to that. Never in my life would I dream of getting called a "Hero" by someone else. Hero, by Irina's definition is someone that saves and protects the weak.

Although I too am not sure myself, but that desire inside me came when seeing people hurt each other. So it's safe to assume that I was happy when I saved peoples right? Ha! And here I thought that wanting to be a Hero is a childish dream.

Oh well, at least I was a bit relieved that I don't need to hurt people to become a hero.

"Why are you bullied?" I ask Sella-san beside me, trying to change the topic meanwhile Irina has already took the spot next to Sella and now also sat beside me.

"After scolded by papa the boy blurted out that they only followed their leader, though Kato only stay silent for the whole scolding." It was Irina instead who answered my question.

"Only the leader? Did they really say that?" I didn't blame them for it, trying to blame other people when they did not want to take the blame for themselves is like an instinctive trait for normal human, though the one who's blamed usually will take action instead of doing nothing.

"Mhm, strange right? Even though such a thing shouldn't be possible but when asked, the boy said that their body moving without their consent. Really, if they're going to make an excuse at least makes some good one!"

Moving without their consent? Is such a thing actually possible? Hypnotize? But is their leader can do it? He's still children albeit a bit crazy if I must be blunt, but that still does not change the fact that children doesn't do that naturally.

That time it was really pure hatred, I can sense that it was hatred directed toward me and the girl. I never met him and I don't think it was just because the difference in our appearance that he hate us. It was unthinkable to be bullied just because of that little fact.

"Kato, if I remember correctly that's the leader name right?" I asked Irina, because my memory of that time was a bit fuzzy I don't remember the conversation between the boy and the leader. I think I sort of remember that some of them don't agree with that Kato boy.

Irina nodded and continued "Kato Kaizuki is the leader and the one who make the ground rules, though he's a bit arrogant and cocky, because of his mother's death two months ago he suddenly become like this…"

Death of someone you loved can cause a sudden change in one personality. It's actually make sense if he becomes like that all of a sudden because of one of the most important people in his live has died. I don't think that Irina will still stay the same if one of her parent died.

But… no it's more than that. Even if one's mother is killed there's no real reason to hate other people for that. No it's more than that.

Unless…

If the object of his hatred is related to me and Sella-san then…

"Then what about his family? Other than his mother I mean."

"I don't know really much about him, he's sent to hospital for one month because they believed that he suffered some sort of trauma. Later they sent him back though safe and sound."

Not satisfied by the information, I continue ask Irina. "Then currently he's living alone? No other relatives?"

Irina seems to ponder about the answer as if trying to remember something, moment later she answered me. "No, sometime I go to his house to see his grandma is still there."

"Grandma? Where did his father g-"

"Oh! Right, his father is also in hospital right now. I didn't really get into the detail with how he got into it in the first place though I hear it was around the same time with Kato." Before I could finish my question, Irina already answered me.

His father is in hospital so he doesn't have any way of knowing what sort of situation haves Kato involved to… Then the problem came to the boy himself, Kato Kaizuki. What should I do with him?

"…He doesn't make any mistake." Suddenly I hear Sella-san voice beside me saying that. Should I forgive him? I don't bore any hatred or desire to revenge and if the two of us who's bullied has already forgiven him then…

I think this case is closed.

But if he ever hurt us again then one way or another I have to do something about it.

"Hyoudou Issei…" Sella-san said and she opened her lips again to continue but stopped short when Irina interrupted.

"Just said Ise name like me, you don't need to say his full name. It's troublesome!"

"That's kind of rude."

"Not if you think about it. I mean even I shortened your name right? You could also call me whatever you want, but not in strange way okay?"

Irina, Irina, Irina. Rina? No, while I think it's kind of befitting for her I think it would be more suitable if she's like… Iri? Now that sounded like foreign name even though her origin is Japanese. But then again she called me Ise even though I don't know my origin, based on my appearance and my accent though I can conclude that I'm Japanese.

"Iri?"

Irina meanwhile – a bit taken aback by my sudden nickname – tensed a bit. She's staring at me as if I have just blurted out some kind of unrecognizable nonsense.

"I-I'm sorry if it's a bit strange." I apologized to her who's still a little bewildered but I called her again "Iri?"

Then she snapped out of her own thought and shook her head, "N-No, you just called me like mama does." Strangely she seemed more than happy at my attempt for creating her nickname.

I of course, will still refer Irina by her real name in my mind. As much as it makes her happy to be called like that, I just think that it was still improper for me to call her like that, going back to our history too I met Irina a week ago and our relationship is still fragile but growing. If this keeps up maybe sometime in the future I can call her 'Iri' in my mind too.

And the fact that Irina is kind of lost in her own world is confused me whether I should call her by her nickname or not, "Oi, Irina. You okay there?" I snapped my finger in front of her face to wake her up.

"Eh? Oh, err… yes?"

"Are you sick? You don't happen to catch sickness because of me right?"

"N-No! Umm, right! We're talking about Sella right?" She stuttered a little when she said that, almost as if she's trying to get out of the topic.

My attention turned back to the albino who's still more or less silent. If not for her breathing, – which I can hear – I almost think that she didn't very well exist beside me.

"So? What do you think about it Sella? Issei, Ise, whatever it is you want to call him."

"Wait a second, I don't think that we're close enough to use first name basis…"

"Err, aren't we friend? Then it doesn't matter if we use nickname or first name right?"

"Do you even learn about honorific in the first place?"

"Well yeah I do, but it said that dropping honorific is for someone who's close to each other right? Then doesn't it sound correct if we use our first name?"

I want to refute her statement but…

"Somehow that sounded plausible when you said it…"

"Because it's the right thing!"

"And if the person herself doesn't want to do it?"

The two of us switched our gaze to the person in question and the albino just tilted her head to the side before finally saying something "…Issei?"

"See?" Irina asked me while somehow looking… smug?

"That's not even agreeing with you, she just tilted her head."

"If she says your name then that means she agreed!"

"What kind of logic is tha-"

"Issei…" And the cause of our argument did not even helping me instead just adding more fuel to the fire.

Knowing that the conversation will take the wrong turn if I continued I complied with her wish and finally decided to drop her honorific, but isn't this sort of improper? I thought that the book said that honorific is used to respect someone but I think Irina has this some sort of charm that made me believe her.

Then again Sella is foreigner right? I don't really have to follow the rules then.

Does Sella have any family name though? She just sort of introduced herself to me without saying her last name so I can't eliminate the chance that she doesn't have any or she just forgot to say it, right now though my mind is more leaning toward the former.

Even I, the supposed to be amnesia kid have a last name. Though from what Elisha said to me, the town is completely destroyed because of the fire, fortunately it's only a small secluded town. Back to my family name, I don't have any family or relative left according to Elisha. I don't even think it was normal for anyone can survive that sort of thing without any means of miracle.

That's why I think it's weird for Elisha to be able walking through the fire while carrying me.

Snapping back on the reality, I refreshed my memory on our current situation.

"Sella" I call her, still feeling a little unusual calling her directly. Sella didn't do so much as react and just blink once indicating her response to my calling.

"I thought that you're really formal when it came to other people."

"Because it's what you supposed to do when you're meeting someone you didn't know." I replied her children logic with my own argument.

"Really?"

"Didn't your parent teach you?"

"Ummm, come to think of it maybe they mentioned something like that…" She trailed off and putting on a thoughtful expression before finally she let out a 'Tehehe~' just like when someone forgot about something. "Oh, you can already go out right? Let's go to the park today! I need someone to push me when we're playing a swing."

"Can't Sella do it?"

Then she made a dismissing gesture with her hand while striking down my suggestion. "She didn't even know how the swing works in the first place." She then put her hand together to make a begging motion. "So please! I've waited long enough for this!"

I stared at Sella incredulously, not believing what I just heard. After a few seconds of needless staring though, I sighed and faced Irina again.

"I still need to rest Irina, I don't even think I was allowed to do what you said with my arm like this." I replied while moving my left arm a bit. That one wasn't a complete lie though, while it was true that I still need to rest, I just made up some lie when in fact the fracture in my left arm is completely healed.

"Eh~" She pouted. "Well I'll just play with Sella then, but remember to come tomorrow alright? Even though you can't move around too much you can do that much right?"

"No promise."

She let out a sigh of disappointment upon hearing my reply. "Well then I need to go home now since you can't go out. Come Sella don't stay too long at Ise house when he's sick." She said while preparing to go home and – forcefully – offered(pulled) Sella to come home together.

"Um." A short answer came from the albino but still managed to carry out the meaning nonetheless.

"I'll show you out." It was the least I could do after making her disappointed.

I tried to properly stand and prepared to go out for a while, I'm already healed but I still need some rest though I can at least walk around this house, maybe. Just when I was making my way out from the futon, a sudden headache assaulted me which caused me to stagger a little bit.

Why did when I was hurt I need to sleep so much?

"Something wrong Ise? You look a little pale there." Irina was worried obviously noticed me trying to stay awake.

"No, it's fine. Both of you-" I stopped when the pain was growing stronger "I'm sorry but can I sleep again? Tomorrow I think I can meet you two in the park, I promise…" I said to her while trying to sound as normal as I can right now.

"…Goodbye." "Alright then, rest well!"

When I finally can't sense their presence again, I fall onto the soft surface and put my hand above my forehead. Without even letting me continued my thought, I already lost my consciousness and drift back into sleep.

 **-0-**

It's already tomorrow, I can already move my body and unnaturally all part of my body are healed like new. This was of course not natural at all, almost like magic. I remembered how I healed so much for the last few days after I suddenly woke up in the night, almost all the wound are healed now.

I've already asked Takagi-san when she visited me and I was surprised that I healed completely in one week. And then my mind raced back to when I experience that strange dream with the green light healing me. I didn't experience any of that dreams anymore but if somehow…

All of this is… not normal at all.

Something… something is involved in here. Takagi-san didn't seem surprised at the fact but that's only assuming that she actually know about my situation.

What if the one who healed me covering up my situation? If the one who healed me is lying about my current state, then he/she can easily tricking people believing that my wound isn't really bad despite the actual situation.

And then there's also Elisha, when she came by I didn't sense any anxious or anything malicious, only that she seems to hold a secret but then again she always like that. Fracture or broken bones can't be healed by one week alone without doing something extreme like surgeon but I don't even remember going to hospital this past week so can I safely assume my dream about the green light healing me is actually true.

But then come to my mind about how magic and supernatural exist. Is it actually existed now? or it's just my imagination? Right now, my brain – being a normal brain like it is – is trying really hard to deny the fact that magic is still exist until now, basically its keeping me sane.

It's too hard to think about something complicated like this with so little proof. I'm really putting some serious thought about this kind of unrealistic thing eh.

Back to the matter at hand there's my new friend, Sella, to discuss at. She probably doesn't know what sort of situation she's involved when she was bullied before.

And truthfully I didn't know why she's bullied in the first place.

I let out a tired sigh and decided to just go to the park today. I go into the living room with the purpose to see Elisha's face, it's already been one week since I don't see her face in reality – I don't count when I see her in my dream of course.

And when I was just one step away from living room I can sense Elisha and another person presence different than any person that I can recognize.

Just one step away and all I need is just to slide open the door before me, but curiosity got better of me and I decided to eavesdrop on what they're saying.

"Leywin, I hope that you don't regret the choice that you've made." The other occupant in the room says.

"I don't, though if there's something that I regret from the past is only her… my daughter." The definitely familiar female voice said replying to the statement made from the other people in the room.

It was Elisha who said that.

My ears which is still glued to the door was definitely didn't hear anything wrong. It was Elisha's voice who said that, the room stayed silent while I was still waiting to hear any further.

My daughter.

I didn't hear that wrong didn't I? She clearly said that she has a daughter. But where's she right now? Why's she not with her? Then again the other person has said something about regret and Elisha replied her regret is about her daughter.

If it's true then I won't ignore the chance that Elisha's daughter is already dead or Elisha herself left her.

Unfortunately I was too focused by that one sentence that I didn't notice that someone slide open the door.

And from the opened door was Elisha already waiting for me while staring down at me with her cold gaze, inspecting me from every inch of my body. Uuuh… I didn't do anything wrong right? She never looks at me like this and the way her eyes is inspecting me is like I was going to be dissected just by her stare!

Finally after some seconds, she sighed and her usual cool façade is slipped back on her face as she slides open the door fully, showing the other people in the room.

A man who seems to be in his thirties was looking at me with animosity, he has light brown hair and clothed plainly. He turned off his glare and showed me a kind smile like the one a father used for their child despite his glare before.

Without realizing it, I was glaring at this man in front of me as if he's my arch-enemy despite my experience of never seeing this man before. I was doing this unconsciously, I realized what I'm doing and yet I can't shake off the feeling that this man in front of me is **dangerous.**

No, what made me do this instinctively is that despite his kind expression, he's clearly prepared to **kill** me if I should become a threat to him.

And the woman beside me didn't even bat an eye on my change of attitude and left my side to sit on the opposite end of the table facing the other man. The man didn't seem to notice my glare and instead just gulping down the whole tea in his cup before finally placing his gaze on the blue-haired woman.

At the man's gaze, Elisha just sighed while rubbing her temple before scratching the back of her head and standing up to walk beside the brown-haired man. Then she placed her hand on top of his left shoulder, "Kid, this is Shidou Touji, the father of that Irina-girl. And Touji, this is Hyoudou Issei, the free-loading, amnesiac kid that lives in my house."

I cringe a bit about her description about me, but I still managed to keep my calm and bow my head as a mean of introduction. "Pleasure to meet you, Shidou Touji-san"

"Likewise Hyoudou Issei-kun." And he replied while he does the same as me.

Finishing up our introduction Elisha spoke breaking the silence between us. "Okay, so what're you doing here kid? You know that it's not nice to eavesdrop on something right?"

"It's not like I can hear anything from that spot." I lied to her before continuing. "And I just want to say that I was going to go to the park today since I can already go out, I need your permission after all."

She stared at me for a while, it was more longer than usual but thankfully she just let me go for today. I went away from the living room and closed the door behind me before finally made my way to the entrance of this house.

While going there, I still doesn't forget that Elisha haves another relative, namely her daughter. The reason that she left her is currently unknown.

Shidou Touji, Irina's father is… unknown for now. All I know is that his relationship with Elisha is bordering acquaintances if the way they're glaring at each other is any indicative. And even though I know that he's Irina's father – the one that saved me – I get this feeling that I shouldn't let off my guard before that man.

And despite this new information I got, all of that is useless if I don't even know the core of their conversation.

Then again should I care about this? I don't even know that in the future that this sort of thing will be useful for me. For now I don't think that I need to care about this.

 **-0-**

"""We're sorry!"""

I was currently in the park along with Irina and Sella, when I came to the park it didn't filled with as much vigor and activity as the park that I went to yesterday. Turn out, some of the kids were scared and some were just prohibited by their parents to not going to this park when they saw I was beaten up.

And we naturally encounter the boys who had put me into the predicament in the first place and they hurriedly go to me and apologized. I hear their reasoning and forgive them but all of them strangely have a same reasoning.

We followed Kato Kaizuki.

Kato Kaizuki the leader was nowhere to be seen, the group of kids is just consisted of three kids all who are healthy and I don't sense any malicious intent from them so it's safe to conclude that they're not lying. And then this just put another question in my head.

What did Kaizuki do? What did he do to the boys to have them follow him without thinking? This was not normal at all, is this some sort of hypnotize trick? But when I was beaten up the boy is arguing with Kato, so they can still think and guess.

"I don't really know what's going on with my mind but when I hear his order, I just feel like following him. No please understand this! I didn't lie! When you meet him in person you will understand!"

"When you hear his voice you will obey him. I can't put it into word but when I was near him it just feels natural for me to do what he said, like breathing."

"The moment when I swallowed down the word he said, my mind listed his order as priority and while I can still think, I just didn't feel like do it. Fortunately in the end I managed to not letting Kato killed you because that's just wrong!"

Were their reaction when I question them about Kaizuki.

The conclusion? Kato Kaizuki has some sort of power. Power to make them follow him without thinking of the consequences. Perfect power for a leader, strangely I have to hold back my urge to chuckle after knowing the reason.

I still remembered when he beat me up, I should've focused more into that.

He didn't just do it for acknowledgement. For that he already gained more than needed for other kids to trust him so why must he…

It was more than that, something personal, something that made him hurt us more than he need to, his hatred is directed to the two of us but the main source of his hatred was Sella. He didn't beat up weaker people like when they did it to Sella or me.

All of his targets just suffered a minor wound like bruise or cut.

But it's never goes beyond that, they never coughed up blood, never got any fracture, or even have to rest in a bed for a week.

And all of them were indeed have some problem with Kaizuki or the kids under him.

But Sella or I were not.

So it made one thing clear.

He had something personal against Sella and I'm just unfortunate because I'm trying to protect her.

Though his statement about me and Sella being monster is proven false, I mean even though Sella's appearance is clearly indicate her unnaturalness, it's not enough to scare off the kids. Heck, even I myself was only being left out by the other kids but I was never bullied.

Irina herself who doesn't related to the incident directly, only opted to stay silent and Sella the one that's bullied in the first place didn't do anything mostly because she doesn't understand the current situation.

After saying their apology, they left probably because they're embarrassed of playing with us again after the accidental bullying. I myself also need to rest, no matter how much I want to stay in here I can't resist the sleepiness that's bugging me ever since I came to the park.

Irina begged me to stay here for some hours and I've to admit that she's strangely a bit happy when the three of them apologized to us. Huh who ever thought that someone who wants to become a hero is getting happy just because someone apologized?

Apparently though, she was happy that no one need to hurt each other and it can be resolved peacefully, that and she was happy that the supposed-to-be-bad-guys is apologized to the "Hero".

After that, Irina is currently explaining the rule about playing tag to Sella. It was then that I notice. My eyes widened when I realized that it was Kaizuki, his stance calm and his stare is precise. But he didn't stare at me and instead he was glaring at Sella.

Irina stopped her explanation and looks a bit panicked meanwhile Sella at first didn't notice his presence until it was close enough, I stand in the way of Kaizuki, intended to protect the two girls. He much to my surprise didn't bat an eye to my action and instead opened his mouth.

"So you don't know the truth of her huh." He said loud and clear. From this alone I know how much willpower needed to resist what he's saying. Even though it was not order, even though it was just a simple statement, that is enough to force me to believe what he said to become "Truth" in my mind.

This was unnerving, not because of our current situation but because I discover that this sort of thing is real. You can make people obey you with the use of Hypnosis without their consent but this boy in front of me do all of that as if it was natural. As if he's born to lead, though I can only cringe when I imagine his people being forced to do thing instead of doing it with their own free will.

"Just make sure that you don't end up being killed." He said and fortunately, he quickly turned off his stare, turn on his heel before leaving the three of us. Not before he leaves my sight, I called out to him. He did not stop and continued walking as if ignoring my existence.

Because one thing is bugging my mind about what he said. It's not about the part where I will end up being killed. I don't care about that sort of thing. I don't fear death but…

I didn't know the truth about her.

Her. There's only one that come to my mind which is Sella.

Relate it with his pure anger toward Sella, it's easy to make the connection.

It was revenge.

So that leaves me to say it out loud then.

"Who killed your mother!" I called him out loud, obviously the two behind me hearing that. I don't have time to see Irina or Sella reaction, meanwhile Kaizuki didn't waste any time to stop and he's already making his way here.

I motioned Irina to stand back mostly because I didn't want her to hear what I'm going to say.

"I know that time you didn't bully Sella for fun. Was it revenge? Or is it just your way to vent up your anger? Either way it's related to your mother right?"

The reason why I think like this is that it just perfectly matched up with how his behavior changed recently after he came back from hospital. Either the doctor didn't carefully search for any indication of change in his mind or he just haves some really good way to hide his change.

"Sella? So that's her name? Let me tell you something then **hero** …" He clearly put a threatening tone in his last word obviously pointing at me whether it was to mock me or just to show how much control he has over me.

"The one who killed my mother is that white haired girl over there." He said and clearly I could see how he's hiding all of anger when he said this all. Despite that though, he still keep his voice low so that neither Irina nor Sella could hear us.

"What? Why did you think it was her? There's no way that a kid can kill your mother." I said as if stating a fact. Yeah there's a parentless kids who's out there trained in the war, both their body and mind trained for killing but I'm pretty sure that Sella is not the kids that I mentioned above.

He chuckled a bit before replying. "In this town. How many did you think that has white hair and red eyes like her?" He stated as if it was a truth rather than a question and I contemplated at his word. It was true, there's not so much-no there's no one other than Sella that matched the description above.

Back then when I was beaten up I saw him desperate, worried, I thought that it was because he wanted to prove to the other kids how strong he is. So then why did he target the harmless Sella when I was already give up?

I was wrong.

He's desperate to kill Sella.

The silence continued, no one is saying anything. Neither Irina nor Sella comes close to us. It was fortunate because if by any chance that both of them hear what we're talking about then high chance, Irina will leaves Sella alone. I mean it's perfectly normal for any person to stay away from a suppose-to-be-killer.

Luckily, Irina didn't say anything to break the ice between us. Like let's become friend or something like that, honestly said this was as far as our relationship will go. Kaizuki never hated me personally only that Sella are related to his mother killer and I protected her which make me also his target.

We will stay neutral and it won't change, unless I can change his view about Sella that is.

I think it was understandable for a kid like him to misunderstand something and to have him witness such a thing like his mother death will obviously cause a trauma. Irina is not dense enough to scold him for his bullying but at least I can rest easy knowing that, he still had a family.

He leaves us and this time I did not stop him.

Finally after he really leaves the area, Irina is coming to stand beside me.

"Ne, Ise. Why did you ask something like that to him?" Irina asked, worry clearly written all over her face.

"If we don't do that then there will be nothing we gained," I didn't look into her eyes and still staring at his back. "And I need to clear the fact that we're not his enemy."

Irina didn't seems to understand what I meant and she followed my line of sight and caught a glance of Kaizuki's back as if she's regretting when she badmouthing him meanwhile Sella is still the same as always, even though she's the main cause of the incident, she didn't seems to mind it at all. In fact as far as I can see, she doesn't even know what we're talking about.

Ah, ignorance is such bliss.

 **-0-**

There's nothing worthwhile mentioning in my following life after that incident. Shidou Touji came to our house again after that time I was eavesdropping on him. I didn't eavesdrop again after hearing his business to come to our house, is for Elisha.

While Shidou Touji relationship with Elisha is unknown, I can still see him having mix of emotions when he talks with Elisha. It's like they're just neutral but Shidou Touji clearly has some history with Elisha.

Fortunately, Shidou Touji didn't seem to mind me and still letting me playing with Irina. Irina who still optimist about the whole thing, is playing with me and Sella after all these times and sometime encouraged me to keep up with her.

Irina is just like most of the children, happy-go-lucky attitude, selfish, outgoing, etc. and like what she want to do before, I comply with her wish to become a hero and reluctantly running around the park while shouting about evil and justice.

I wish that if there's a hole when I was doing that, I want to bury myself in there. Not because I was embarrassed, but that sort of thing was really out of place for someone like me.

Sella who doesn't know anything, just followed the two of us, correction since I don't want to do anything it was better said that it was Irina who lead us to play anything that she want. Sella and me just following Irina and do anything that she was instructed.

We have become close enough to say that we're best friend. Sella is… what can I say? Improving? Each day she's being taught by me and Irina, though it was mostly by me.

Every day something changed within her, I could see it albeit small. What I teach to her is mostly just common sense and how the world works around us. This is the part where I confused, she can read, watch, and speak Japanese but she doesn't know about the world?

But that doesn't mean her knowledge is limited, she know that we're in Japan specifically Kuoh City. If she doesn't even know that I think that I will start to have doubt about her existence in here. I of course already have doubt about her and asked her origin, it caught me by surprise when she says she's from Japan despite her appearance clearly saying otherwise.

So many thing that can't be explained by words is what I sensed whenever I see her. Her appearance alone is already something unnatural itself, in this town there's no child that have white hair or red eyes if that matter.

But it's not just her appearance.

Sella is like a newborn baby, she's learning and improving her attitude. At first she's emotionless-no empty is more correct term for this. She won't do anything to all of us, only if we forced her, but now she starts to tug my sleeve whenever she wants to talk silently with me.

She's emptier than me because she doesn't seem to have any purpose unlike me who search for my own happiness.

She doesn't have a personality in the first place. Submissive or shy didn't even hold a candle to how she acts around us.

She simply existed.

She is just being here.

And she doesn't have a personality to call her own.

She's just… empty.

And then there's also Irina with us. The eternally optimistic girl as I always call her like that in my mind, the two of us was invited to her house and since I've already promised her to come sometime in the future, me along with Sella goes to her house and was welcomed warmly by her father.

Fortunately it seems that Shidou Touji is not what it seemed before when he talk with Elisha. He's kind and caring for the three of us, I was comfortable enough around him that I can put down my guard. Irina's mother is on some job and was away when I gone to her house at that time so it's just me, Irina, Sella, and Touji-san.

The sword that I search for was not there so I assume that Touji-san or Irina's mother is hiding it somewhere in this house. It also considered improper for me if I just wandering around the house to search for a sword.

My time in Irina's house was quite new for me, to see someone else house up close not from TV is another new experience for me. Add in the fact that Irina's house is western styled and I pretty much just asking her about all sort of thing that I didn't know in her house, some of them is related to the religion so I didn't go into that much.

Even Sella is also looking around the house with a hint of curiousness when she entered the house. I didn't know if it was because she's new to this or confused because of the sudden change in place, come to think of it what kind of place did Sella lives in?

Our time didn't last long and when the sun goes down I already prepared to leave, Irina offered to have a dinner before I'm going but I rejected the offer and I instead offered to walked Sella back to her home. She for the first time since I saw her, show some sort of rejection by tensed up a little when I touch her shoulder.

Sella quickly leave without saying proper goodbye and go to god-know-where. Why did she do that? Is something wrong with her house? Maybe that's the final conclusion that I can got, something that she didn't want other people know is in her house.

But really, it's hard to think that someone like her can have a secret. Well, her existence itself is mysterious so I think that an even bigger secret is in her house or something. It also didn't help that she didn't show any expression after that day like usual. I thought that if someone knows that you have a secret they will show some expression like panic or something.

Again this is how she was so I didn't complain.

Day after day passed, Elisha already registered me to the school and Irina is already entered the school before me. She was very excited when I told her that I will go to the same school as her, the school itself is nothing special at all. It was as I expected when I watch the TV about the school.

The first grade is not very hard, I just have to focus on what teacher explained and it was easy to score out perfect mark. And judging by the school system as long as my absences were good enough, it's easy to graduate from elementary school.

And fortunately Kaizuki is not in the same class as mine or Irina. God know what he's going to do with me along with the group of his.

Strangely though Sella didn't go to the school despite her clothes is like those rich-girl clothes. But come to think of it, she never changed her clothes even once. Does that mean she's poor because she doesn't have any other clothes?

I never know about Sella's house, not because I don't want to but because Sella doesn't tell us anything about it. And sometime even though the town we lives in are pretty peaceful, Sella will comes to us with her whole body bandaged as if she was just being released from hospital the day before that.

And when I mean released from hospital, I mean her wound isn't a shallow wound like bruise or cut.

The white bandages where her body was covered were soaked red with blood.

It's like her body was opened up and closed up every day.

Sella never answered us if we're asking her about her living situation, she seems to hiding something. Something big, like the one that Elisha has.

Despite that though, Irina never pry into it that much because she didn't want to make her feels uncomfortable. Though it was clear as day that Irina really worried about Sella's mysterious wound while I myself didn't really want to know about other people, maybe because I didn't even know anything about myself?

Nothing eventful happened during the last two years – except Sella – and the three of us has already deepened our relationship. Though I won't call it deepening in case with Sella, I mean she just following us anywhere we go and learning something new every day. She must be really living in secluded environment if she didn't even know about something common like car or bike.

Sella finally attended the same school as Irina and I, Irina and I were not in the same class but Sella is in my class. Sella who's on the same class as mine is trying really hard to learn anything that the teacher teach and I was relieved that she did not need me anymore to teach her.

And then suddenly…

Touji-san decided to pay a visit to our house once more, this time his expression was a mix of confusion, serious, and furious. I didn't want to meddle in their business and I left the house quickly before I get more curious about their 'talk'.

A month passed after the sudden visit of Touji-san into my house, and then suddenly out of the blue Irina invite us again to her house correction "forced" is the correct term to us. I don't know why but she seems to be desperate about something, I didn't want her to nag me tomorrow so I obey her wish and Sella is doing the same.

This time there's also Irina's mom in there cooking us a dinner, even though I refused to have a dinner with them Irina force us to do so. Sella for the first time I befriended her, have this scary look almost like she feared something. Does she afraid to have dinner with other people?

The house didn't change that much ever since I last came here, except for the fact that it looks quite tidied out and all kinds of religious relics and pictures that was proudly displayed before have been taken out which left the walls clean from the previous regal decorations.

I must say that the dinner is good. I've seen how Irina's mother made the food and have learned how to make it. I can replicate them in the future where I've learned how to cook more but this time let's enjoy the food thoroughly and while we're at it, analyzing whether or not I can improve the already delicious cooking.

Because I've become more older – 8 years old – I can do more complicated cooking so Takagi-san often teach me about cooking. Anyway back to the present, the cooking is more fancy than I thought, is this someone birthday or something? I tried to ask about it but when Touji-san wants to say something Irina stopped him and waved her hand as if nothing is going on.

This is weird definitely weird.

Sella also didn't seem to mind the fancy dinner and tried out all the food on the table, as if she hasn't eaten that at all. Heck she even had this some sort of amazement in her eyes when she ate the rice.

Alright this is definitely weird, did she never eat even rice? I know that it's rude to ask something along that line but I don't want to destroy the warm atmosphere between Irina's and her parent so I decided to ask her later.

After saying goodbye to both of Irina's parents, I prepared to leave along with Sella but I was stopped short when Irina called out and offered to walk us home. I of course rejected her offer but my hand and Sella's were grabbed by Irina and without even letting me saying anything she took us away from her home.

"W-Hey Iri, where are you taking us?"

"Just follow me alright? This is important! Look at Sella she's not even complaining!" Irina reply with anger mixed in her tone, she seems desperate about something.

"…It's already late." Sella say with her usual emotionless tone.

Alright, I won't complain but at this rate I will be scolded by Elisha. Wait will she even scold me? Then again I think that she won't even scold me about something like this. Yeah she will scold me if I'm in danger or some sort.

We followed where Irina go and I've to say that this is the first time that I take a walk on this street on night time. The sun has already down and most of the light was coming from the moon, I look up and see that the moon is really beautiful accompanied by the endless stars hanging on the sky.

There's also light coming out from the lamp-post beside the street but that didn't even hold a candle to the light from the moon. After a while then I realized that we take the step back to the park where we usually play, we come to this place almost every day but seeing it at night is different than I thought.

First was the fountain is reflecting the shine from the moonlight although small and the water coming out from the fountain look like crystal when being seen from here. I look around and Sella didn't said anything and only staring at her own reflection at the fountain.

From there I could see that she opened her mouth a bit as if surprised at her own reflection before quickly closed it again when Irina called out to us.

Where will she takes us I wonder? I thought that if she want to talk something then isn't there's a bench in the park where we usually sat at? But I quickly dismissed that thought when I see that Irina stopped walking after we climbed the stair. Isn't this place is the one that has the large pond in it? Don't tell me that Irina want to swim in there?

I climb the stairs quickly and intended to reach out for Irina but I gasped when I see the scenery in front of my eyes. It has a large pond where the dark blue sky is reflected by the pond, I could see the countless stars from the reflection.

The reflection on the pond was unclouded just like the clear sky above us, the shining stars are decorating the night sky and the same was reflected on the water in the pond. Sadly the moon isn't there but looking at the closer reflection on the water, I realized that it looks similar to the picture book that I read at the school.

But clearly, experiencing the real thing is more realistic than just staring at a picture.

"Woah…" I couldn't help but say it loudly. Irina who hear me said it smiled slightly at my response.

Huh? That's weird, her smile seems… off for some reason.

Sella who I didn't noticed before was already standing beside me and this was the first time I seen her reacted differently at something. Sometime she would only blink or sometime she would only left her mouth agape as if surprised but this time it's different.

"Beautiful…" Her voice clearly said. There's no one other than us here and her voice seems to be melted into the silent night, it was clear and serene.

She smiled.

A smile so small that it almost unnoticeable even for me, if I didn't focus my eyesight at her I think that I will miss that rare almost impossible moment. Maybe it was just a trick of light or the view from this angle, but Sella's smiling for the first time.

All this time I was suspicious of her, not suspicious if she means harm to us or not. I already know enough that someone like her who doesn't even know what does evil mean, cannot become one.

What I suspicious of is whether she's human or not.

Kaizuki already told me about the chance of Sella being her mother killer and while I take his advice seriously, I quickly discarded that thought when I see her smile. So I decided to give her a benefit of doubt but…

I mean it's good to relax for once right? It's not like I will die today just because I lower down my guard around her.

I relaxed my tense body. It's relaxing to see this scenery and all of my stress from thinking too much seems to be washed away by this.

Lately I've been thinking too much about the state of the world that I'm currently in, – something that shouldn't be minded by children like me – but after seeing this I can feel relaxed and my mind seems to be more peaceful than before.

I think that I've overworked my brain too much every day, so a change in place seems to be nice from time to time.

Irina then proceeded to sit on one of the place designed to sit, it's made of stone but it's not a bench despite that it's clearly mean to be sat on.

She waves her hand at us who's still entranced by the scenery and invite to sit beside her, I sit in the middle of the two and while it may seems indecent the three of us are still children so I think it's fine to be like this.

"What do you think? When I first came to this place, I think that this will be beautiful if we come here in the night." Irina started after the two of us have sat on the stone-made thing.

"Truthfully I didn't think that I will find something like this in this town, and here I think I already memorized the whole town for myself." I said with a sigh. And what I said is true, after I become a friend with both Irina and Sella, Irina tried to explore all sort of place within the town except the mountain and because of that I ended up memorized every inch of the townscape.

Of course I remember this place but I never seen the town when it was night time, maybe the three of us will explore the town again but when the moon and star is shining like this.

"Fufufu, it's hard to find something like this place you know?"

"Even though we've already came here last week?" I said matter of fact, it was true we've came here to the same place but it was at a day-time and it was clearly different when we visited it at night.

"This and that is different! When we came here in the day it's just look like a normal pond but when it was night its different thing alright?"

I closed my eyes and sighed at her question, accepting my lost. "Alright, you win. So why do you bring us here?"

Irina stay silent for a while, she didn't say anything and only look at her own reflection in the water with a longing expression much like how she want to play hero back then. Why did she do that?

"Ne, in the future… will the three of us can become like this again?"

"What are you saying?" I asked her, this is weird Irina didn't act like she was lately. As cheerful as she was normally, she was less energetic now.

"J-Just asking you know? If we were separated… will three of us can meet again?"

"I don't know what do you mean but we can always go to this town if we happen to go anywhere right?"

Sella didn't say anything but nodded anyway and seeing that Irina stood up and put her hands behind her back while standing in front of the pond.

"That's a relief~ I didn't think that you will think like that Ise!"

What? Why are you saying that? She's happy and sad at the same time. Something that can't exist at the same time right now is being showed to me. Happiness is the polar opposite of Sadness so it shouldn't be possible to combine it and yet Irina is doing that.

It's good that she's happy but why is she sad?

"Iri, what is bothering you? This is not like you at all…" I ask my supposed to be best friend. Sella are listening to our conversation and stay silent while Irina is turning her back on us.

"Will the two of you will be sad if someone close to you left? I'm asking this as your friend."

"This is getting nowhere Iri, why are you answering me with a questi-" I stopped realizing what she meant…

Don't tell me…

"Please…" Irina said to me even though I can't see her face, I can tell that she's sad from her tone of voice.

If someone close to me will leave me forever then I don't know if I'll be sad or not… I mean I've lost my real parent but I did not even cry when I remember that fire again. No maybe it's because I don't remember anything about them that I can't even crying about someone that I don't have any memories of.

But if I lose Elisha, Irina, Sella, or even Takagi-san… maybe I won't cry… the thought that I won't even cry or feeling sad when I lose someone important to me is scary enough but…

"I will be sad, I won't cry but to have someone important in your life suddenly disappeared then… yeah, even someone like me will feel sad." I lied to her. Though, I've doubt that I will really feel sad when I lose something important.

The thought that I won't even fear of losing someone or something important is… No, even more than that, the very thought that I can't even feel sad even though I want to is scary enough.

Then Irina's lip curled into a smile and she continued "Mhm, just as expected of my best friend Ise! And you Sella? What about you?" I endured a small cringe of pain when I see her smiling at my answer(lie).

Sella are silent but I can tell that she's thinking hard about it. She's clearly confused about this all, well she usually is like this too but she's really taking her time to think about the answer. Then after some minutes Sella closed her eyes for a while before finally answered.

"…What is sadness?"

Seriously? She didn't even know about it?

"Eh? Sella you didn't know about it? Then when you're bullied what do you felt about it?"

"It's hurt?"

Irina gave a dumbfounded expression at Sella and she seems to racking her brain. See? This is what you will feel when you explain something to Sella, it's a never ending madness.

"Eto, ummm. I don't know how to explain this kind of thing. I'm not suited to this. But it's something li-"

I interrupted Irina's before she can say anything more, if what she said about when I saved her is true then…

"Maybe it's when you don't want something?" I blurted out without thinking and their attention switched to me. This is going to take a while to explain and the fact that I never personally feel sad is also making this explanation confusing.

Emmm, how am I going to interpret it?

"T-Think about it like this, when you were hurting what do you want?"

"…I want it to stop…"

"Then that means you're sad if you're put into pain."

What am I saying? My explanation is kind of makes sense to me but that's the only logical explanation that I can do to describe what it mean to feel sad to other people.

Fortunately Sella seems to catch the meaning and open her mouth to say, "…I'm sad… if Irina or Issei leaves…"

….

The two of us – Irina and me – are surprised by her statement. I half-expected that she will say anything ridiculous again like asking question to me but I didn't expect that she will answer Irina's question. And despite what she said her expression indicating otherwise.

It's the same as her usual expressionless face. She didn't show her sadness or happiness, that's the way she is. But Irina seems to be satisfied with the answer and smiled at the two us. Even if Sella expression is emotionless, her inside – which I can know – is telling me that she will be really sad.

I was surprised at the sudden turn of event. Because I can know her feeling, I was really surprised when she was sad.

It was at that time, that I realize Sella was not-so-empty anymore.

"Iri-"

I call out to her but the word is stuck in my throat when I see her expression, she's sad but she seems satisfied. I feel a pang of sadness when I see her expression like that and imagining that this will maybe the last time I see her face ever again.

"If we ever meet again in the future… do you think we can be like this again?"

"Future… I never think about it…" I answer honestly. If by any chance that this will be our last time we will talk like this, my day will not be the same ever again without Irina. And the only one who can play with me is only Sella. But even then will my life still be the same?

All this time our group is leaded by Irina and she's the one who decided what we will play… meanwhile the two of us are only following her. Sella with her empty-no I can't call her that anymore, Sella who's stoic, Irina who's optimist, and myself who I don't know what kind of personality I can call myself.

I don't think that our group will be the same again without Irina here.

"…Future?" The most silent one from the rest of us, Sella said.

"Yep, I don't think that we will be the same again in the future! Who know maybe all of us will turn out differently."

"Well, it's decided by what do you want to become I guess? You choose your own future right?" I stated my own opinion at her.

She nodded vigorously while twirling in front of the pond, it certainly beautiful to see her like this but it's dangerous if you do that in the night especially if she's still a child with her short legs.

"Ne, Issei. What do you want to do in the future?" Irina asked out of sudden.

What do I want to become in the future…

"Ladies first?" I offered her.

"Me? I think I will follow my father." Irina answered while putting on curious expression at me, expecting my answer.

His father? While I don't know the exact detail of what Touji-san does in his job, I know that it's not a normal one based on his reaction to me when he discover I was eavesdropping on the talk about his job with Elisha.

I decided to ask her about it since I'm curious. "Touji-san? Do you know what his job is?"

"I only get some vague description but Papa said that his job is to serve the god. And serving a god is a good thing right?"

Serve the god? There exist many religions but Touji-san is Christian so most likely the one her serve is god from bible.

"Before you said that you want to become a hero Irina, though I think it's good that you finally start to think realistic."

At my word, she giggled before turning to face me while smiling, "Hero comes in many form of thing right? Then if I served a good god and protected people around me isn't that also a Hero?"

"That…" I'm surprised with her statement. What she said is true though, what her definition as hero is probably matched in what she want to become in the future. Someone who will protect the weak and her loved ones, that's what she's want to become.

"And you Ise?" Irina asked me who's still thinking about the whole hero and church. I saved my thought for later, I don't think it was more important than this time.

I don't really know what I want to become.

"That's… a secret…" I sheepishly said.

I once thought that I can relate my desire to my dream but thinking about it again what do I really want? These past years I spent my time with Irina, playing the same things but sometime we played hero by saving the weaker kid from other bully. It's not just Kaizuki, there are more kids in the school who think they're suited to be leader of delinquent.

Because of that, I don't have a choice but to focus on the matter of stopping the bullying.

Is it just the matter of saving people? I often thought about that.

And I rarely think about my future at all so the most I do is to focus on the present.

"Eh~ why won't you tell me already? Is it something big that you don't want other people to know? Something that can change the world maybe?"

I winced a bit when she told me about changing the world. Will my existence really change the world? A small meaningless existence like me can really change the world? An empty person like me?

"Where did you get that assumption? I never tell you about it before."

"Mhm, but you know? Maybe it's something related to it, am I right?"

"No, it's not even close to that." I said to her which then I hear the sound of clicking tongue presumably from Irina.

Truthfully I don't know the consequence of what my existence will do to this world but I don't think it was big enough to change the way this world work. Just as I think like that out of sudden I hear a silent clear voice.

"…You can"

I hear Sella's voice said it. I turn my head to see Sella is already looking at me, Irina is also wondering what Sella has said and waited for her answer.

"What do you mean by that?"

"…Change the world. If it's you... Issei can change… the world." She said, no it's more like she stated a fact. A truth.

"How can I do that sort of thing?" I decided to follow her joke and at the same time inside I was dumbfounded at the fact that she really said that I can change the world, but maybe now she can already follow the joke that Irina made.

"Change the world… you has the power to do so…"

My… power? I have some sort of power that can do ridiculous thing like that? How? No I mean what did she see in me? Did she have this some sort of delusion because I protected her before? She didn't seem to joking about it, all I know about her is that she never lied, hiding the truth yes but she never lie.

I could sense the truth in her word but then again she could just make it up because she doesn't know anything about me.

"Sella, I don't mean to be rude but I don't think I can-"

"…You can"

"I'm just a normal kid so there's no wa-"

"…You can"

I didn't expect her to say that no forget about that, it's the first time I seen Sella so stubborn like this. She usually didn't say anything and just go with our antic and only added some short comment but she never voiced her opinion much less being stubborn like this.

Then suddenly I hear a light chuckle coming from Irina. "Hmmm, maybe what Sella said is true. Ise, maybe you can really change the world."

"You too? There's no way Irina. The world doesn't wor-"

I stopped my word.

Will I… really change the world? I don't really know about it myself, it just a sudden thought of what will happen if I continue clinging on that small desire when I save someone after all.

What will become of me if I continued to cling on that desire? To save people? Will it change the world? What if I don't really want to save someone? What if it's just something that's born out of my morality? No first of all was…

What if I don't have any desire in the first place? That desire which just something that came up when my morality was questioned?

"Something wrong Ise?"

Snapped out of my thought I quickly answered. "N-No, there's nothing wrong. What about Sella? What do you want to do in the future?" I tried to change the topic of conversation. I never try to think that, I just sort of think that if I live my life the way I'm doing right now maybe someday I will know and probably realize my dream.

Sella only tilted her head to the side. Fortunately this time she didn't take much times to answer "…I have a purpose."

Irina didn't seem surprised but I despite my emotionless face, was surprised on the inside when she said that.

She have a purpose and I haven't, she can be sad while I can't.

In just span of two years she has changed so much and I was stuck in here.

"And that is?"

"…Secret"

"That's not fair! In the end it's only me who tell my dream!" Irina said pouting at me, hey I did nothing wrong. I was still confused about my dream, maybe sometime in the future I will know and tell her but definitely not now. Seeing this Sella just opted to stay silent obviously not knowing anything about the source of Irina's anger.

Finally after some minutes, Irina calmed down and sat back with us. Thirty minutes has passed ever since we came and I only have a hunch of her real purpose for coming here.

"If I go far away from this town and never meet the two of you ever again, what will you do?"

….Precisely my life will never be the same again after she left.

It's not assumption it's a fact.

I already know it, my first friend after I come to this town is Irina and to Sella, Irina is our first friend.

Nothing will change that. Shidou Irina, Hyoudou Issei, and Sella share this bond.

Heck, even if it was Sella who go away I'm sure that my life too will change one way or another especially after she haves gained her own personality. So it's not the matter who's goes away or the one who stay, it's the matter whether the three of us can maintain the same relationship like the one we do right now.

Then Irina turns her face away hiding it from me and Sella. I can hear a sobbing voice coming from her. It's not like she's crying right? She's Irina after all.

"Iri?" I asked her out of worry.

"…Irina?" Even the ever silent Sella also asked her. I tried to tap her shoulder but she doesn't seem to respond when I touch her, strange this is supposed to be working.

And so I forcefully turned her face to meet mine, although improper if the person herself doesn't even react when I call her then there's no other way for me. But the moment I do so, I quickly retract my hand from her face when I feel a droplet dripping on my hand.

She's… crying.

Not just sad but actually crying. This is the first time that I see her crying for real, she was honest, cheerful, optimist to all things. She always like what I mentioned above that I almost forgot one thing.

She is a human.

Despite how it look, human especially children tend to show their emotions easily. Adult just have a better way of concealing it but children is not. Irina always looks so happy, playful, and cheery that I often forget that she too is a human.

I always thought of her as eternally optimistic because of her attitude but…

She haves emotions. She can whine, she can smile, she can cry, she can laugh, she can pout; she can do all the things that I couldn't do.

And yet, that's also what makes her crying right now.

Why did I pursue something(emotion) that can make me weak?

"Irina." I call out her name but she didn't stop her sobbing and she clasp onto me for support before she cried on my clothes. I can feel and know her emotion so I can feel the pain. Something like a wound was opened when she cried and yet I can't understand it simply because I myself never went through the same.

The beads of water were falling down on my already-wet clothes one after another, without any sign of stopping. Her voice was unrecognizable to me but it was both ferocious and noisy that I was glad that we're out here when it was night.

I wrapped my arm around her. I was bigger than she so it was easier for me to do that. And I believe this is how human give their comfort, by giving them place to cry on right?

At first she was confused, that later turned out into her useless struggle. Ouch, for a little girl she put up quite a fight and her strength is not to be made fun of. Her face turned into a beet red in mix of embarrassment and crying, she struggled a bit more before it finally died down.

Slowly her sobbing was toned down until our surrounding went silent again. After what seems to be forever, I look down to see her face. The trace of her usual cheerfulness is gone and replaced by a mixture of grief, loss, and frustration. It seems like optimist is not a correct word to describe Irina this time.

The tears made wet tracks down her face and clear watery snot streaked from her nostril. She wiped her tears slowly with her hands and used my clothes to-Eh?!

Oh well, alright I'll allow it just once.

There's no way I can scold Irina who's making that face, although I wonder how angry will Elisha be when I got home with such a mess on my clothes? Yep, our female resident is

I can still hear her sobbing even though her cry has ended. Its hurt so much that even time did not heal it that fast, for the first time on my life I was thankful that I have the ability to know other people feeling.

Geez, what am I supposed to do now? Hug her again until she was comfortable enough to talk about her problem? There's a chance that Irina may not like it even though before I just did it.

Add the fact that even though I knew what it felt, I can't understand the motion behind crying, although I remember that I was crying when the great fire happen, the memories of what exactly caused me to cry didn't really help me.

All I remember was I crying while walking through that hell.

And I don't remember how it feels to cry or being sad anymore.

So I was really confused how to comfort another people over something like this when I haven't really experience it myself.

Ironically the very same ability I was thankful that I have just a moment ago is the one which made me can't do a simple thing like comforting another kid.

"Irina, look I know what you me-"

And then suddenly I was left flabbergasted by what happens in front of me.

Sella is hugging Irina.

…

Okay seriously what did just happen?

I just closed my eyes for a second and all of this was already happening in front of my eyes.

Due to the difference in height it would be better to say that Sella is the one who was embraced.

Irina clearly taken aback by the sudden attack from Sella was left confused by the other girl action and flushed in embarrassment much like when I hug her from before. I didn't interrupt it and only watched in confusion.

"S-Sella! W-what are yo-"

"Human cries when they're sad, Irina's crying… Irina must be hurt…"

Just from that one sentence.

Irina didn't continue her meaningless struggle and accepted the hug from Sella like what mother does to her child and returned the hug. The only difference from what I did before was that Irina is also embraced the smaller child, they hugged each other body.

Somehow I remembered when Elisha carried me away from that fire, strangely it brought a smile on my face when I learnt that I've experienced the same love that son received from his mom.

But…

There's one thing that is bugging me is what she said before.

Human cries when they're sad.

I don't have any problem with that statement. Part of what she said is a truth and I can't deny that, what I've problem is what she said didn't match up with what she admit before.

As far as I can see, she never shows emotion.

Sometimes I think about it but the thought that someone like me exist gave me an unknown feeling.

To see a human like us.

I never gave that much thought about what she said when she first introduced herself but if by any chance that what she said is true…

Then she's not human.

Snapping out of my thought, the not-so-heartwarming scene – in my opinion – has ended without me realizing it. It takes times to make Irina talk but after some more push, I've finally able to get some words from her.

"So you will move out to England because of your father job?"

She nodded at my question, although she did not cry anymore she seems reluctant to talk about this.

But who can blame her? She's only an eight-year old girl nothing more and nothing less. No one expect her to take it quite well when she was informed by her father that she must leave her two best friends away and risk the chance of never seeing them again.

It was obvious what her reaction is.

Anyway, from what Irina told me. She has begged her father to delay her flight and tomorrow was her last day with us. She and her family have already packed all of the things which will explain why her house looks empty.

"You sure that you can be fine on your own?"

"It's fine…" She said but I can see that she have not yet gotten over her problem, especially when her friends are someone who's not normal by common sense.

Yeah, it will be really hard for the two of us to cheer her up.

"It's already late Irina I can walk you home." I suggested to her, in hope that she will recover if I did so. "After all, my house isn't really that far from yours."

"No." She replied while shaking her head a little "Both of you need to go home right? I'm sure that your parents would be mad if I hold you back too long."

When hearing that, strangely Sella seems to get scared a bit. Another one of her unique reaction is when someone mentioned about her home, she will displays a reaction similar to this. Sometime she wills just spacing out ignoring our question or if we asked about her wounds, her face will display a darkened look akin to fear.

But it was unthinkable for Sella to often ended up with new wound even though it was pretty clear that the wound didn't came from beating or something like that. In fact it was almost like a surgery.

Wait… did her house is conducting an experiment with her as the subject?

….

Yeah, as if something likes that can happen in this world.

Irina leaves but not before she flashed us another one of her usual trademark smile, one that she always use whenever she got what she want but this time it was a bit different. Although to normal eyes it looks like she was satisfied it was obvious to me that she was faking it.

And there's nothing that I can do about it so it's better to let it go.

Add the fact that if we won't see each other again then high chance she will forget about us thus she won't have any hard feelings and I don't really have anything to make our situation better so I guess the best move right now was to let her go.

"Sella" I called out the white haired girl beside me who's still looking at her friend leaving, moment later my word reach her and she look up to my face due to our difference in height.

"Let's go home."

She nodded. Not much was said after that, Sella parted way with me and I was preparing myself for whatever to come when I got home.

 **-0-**

"So… that girl forced you to listen to her bawling while you were watched by the other girl? And all of that was just to tell you that she moved out with her father to England? Did I get that right? Or is there anything that you left out to tell me?"

Currently my situation isn't something that anyone wants out there. Yes, the one that the children get when they made their parents angry. And trust me no one wanted to be in the position of said child, oh wait I was in said situation right now.

"No, you get the gist of it. She just wanted to spend her last time with her friends…"

I can feel her cold stare glaring down at me. Despite the warm color in her eyes it was clear as day that she isn't happy about this.

"B-But I don't do anything dangerous. See? I came back here with the same state as before…"

Unfortunately my answer didn't seems to ease her anger and she increased her glare at me but despite the increasing sense of dread came over me, I myself didn't fear whatever-danger was coming at me.

Then she pointed something with her thumb. My eyes darted over to where she indicated. Turn out it was my previously-worn-clothes which is wet because Irina.

Oh right, I never thought of that.

"That…" She trailed off and turn back to face me. "Is what you called "same state"."

"She's just crying…" I look away from her face and tried to change the topic. "And it just so happen that I was the one nearest her."

She closed her eyes then inhaled some breath before finally sighed. She never does that and it was the first time I see her like this. I must've really worried her didn't I?

"Right. Just don't do that again, if you want to then wait until you're old enough or have someone capable to wait for you three." She paused a bit as if thinking about something before she found what she's looking for. "Yeah, if you want to then at least Shidou Touji have to wait over you three."

"Why must Touji-san?" I asked her. I hide my surprise when she mentioned Touji-san who I thought has unfriendly relationship with her to watch over me.

"Because it's dangerous in the night and before you ask about it, it's not a kind of dangerous that you can escape with you alone." She answered and before I can ask again she beat me to it. "And honestly, that guy is the only one who I can trust enough to do it not to mention how capable he is."

I didn't try to fuse over what she meant by dangerous and just silently nodded, and honestly what's the worst could happen? It's not like there's a monster with a human form lurking around this city in the night-time right?

That aside isn't every responsible adult out there capable of keeping watch of three kids walking around the night?

She grabbed the remote which has been placed near her cushion to turn on the TV, soon enough the atmosphere began to livening with the TV's sound.

"Well enough about Shidou, why don't you call me? There's phone in her house right?"

"She forced me before I can." I paused when I see her staring at me incredulously before that turn into mischievous smile. "And I can't break her grasp." This time she let loose a little chuckle that I would have thought mumble if not for the fact that she's smiling.

"Really? You can take hit by the entire boy group for twenty minutes and yet you can't shake off a girl?" She asked me clearly enjoying my situation. "I would never think something this stupid could happen."

I clicked my tongue at her remark, I mean I **can** endure hit by the boys but Irina is different thing entirely. It's not a matter of strength but it just how the world has rubbed me off, it's influencing me to not hurt a girl if I can.

"It's not like I can't, I just don't want to. It would make a problem if I suddenly go home when she was so desperate to make me come with her." I said trying to argue with her statement.

But tonight I clearly saw she's crying and I could do was giving her a shoulder to cry on and that alone is not enough since I can't calm her down. And in the end it's not me who gives her a comfort but Sella.

Again I was confused by how human is so complicated.

"Doesn't change the fact that you lose to a girl right?"

I would quickly lose to her if we continued this meaningless argument so trying to change the topic I quickly asked, "Mind to tell me why we're talking about this again?"

She sighed but not before smiling a little and shrugged her shoulder. "Right, right, whatever you say." Then her eyes darted over to the clock on the wall, following the same I found that it's already past my sleeping schedule.

"You've taken a bath right?" She asked me which I answer with a low mumbling of 'yes'. "Good, tomorrow you still have a school to go and I don't want any complain about not getting any sleep." She said while shooing me away.

Oh well it could have been worse, at least I wasn't punished. I thought like that while making my way to my room.

 **-0-**

The morning after that night wasn't exactly something worth remembering. Just another normal day, going to the bath, cooking simple breakfast, setting up the table, waiting for Elisha to come, and finishing the breakfast.

"Kid, how do you feel when your friend left you?" Elisha suddenly asked when I was putting the dish back to the sink to wash it when she suddenly asked.

Not letting the question hindering my current activity, I answered while rolling up my sleeves. "Not much to say, I don't think it will do me any good if I thought about it too much though."

"Touji's daughter really cries when she leave right? You're sure that you don't feel sad?" She insisted on the question.

"Well… like you said **maybe** I should feel sad about it." I said while switching forth my attention between the question and the dish. "But no matter what, I feel like it's useless to cry over something like that. Not to mention it will make me weak."

I've contemplated about how I pursue my dream, which is to have emotion so that I can become a normal human, one that capable of achieving happiness.

But yesterday night changed my opinion about it.

I still remember how Irina was crying because she will lose me, the rest is probably complicated but if you think more about it, if I don't have emotion then I don't have anything worth to love and doing so I don't have anything to lose.

I won't be happy but at least I won't be sad either.

Isn't it better that way?

Meanwhile the other occupant of the house didn't seems too happy about my answer, I could feel her gaze at my back and it's seriously disturbing when I was still carefully placing the plate on the cupboard so that it won't fall because of surprise. Seriously when she's like this it was obvious that she's angry with me, about what I don't know.

"What? I'm not wrong right?" I asked her still oblivious to what she was angry about.

She increased her glare, if I could put it in a way it almost turned into murderous in any second now. She motioned me to come and she did not dismiss her glare even after I finished washing all the dishes, it was at this point that I realized that I make a serious mistake.

After sitting on the cushion I decided to ask her after finally mustering up my courage. "S-Something wrong? It's not every day that you're like this." I stuttered a bit at her glare and by the twitch on her face it seems like I use the wrong words to say it.

"Issei." She calls out to me, her face was stern and serious. In no moment I snapped out of any unnecessary thought sensing the seriousness in her tone.

"What are you doing yesterday night with Touji's daughter?"

I swallowed my saliva as the act to prepare myself, while it may be unnecessary strangely it just give me calming feeling. I was calm, really calm, my mind is still working like usual but because of unknown situation that I faced right now, it's working unlike it normal state.

Predicting how to approach the situation, choosing the word carefully, what facial expression is needed for, body gesture, etc. my mind was already working like super computer for something as small like this.

At a time like this I wish I could get nervous because my mind isn't really helping me, even though it's already predicting various kind of outcome for this, based on what I know about human, they're not something that could be predicted.

If I can get nervous, at least I can get panic to take off my mind thinking about other things.

"We are talking about what we will do if we cannot see each other again, what our reaction would be, will we cry or not." I answered her truthfully.

"And? What is your answer?"

"I…" I paused, contemplating whether to tell her the truth or lie again. I can probably get through this if I lie through my teeth but… "I answered her that I will be sad, that I would cry."

"But that's not what you will really do right?"

I silently nodded, I closed my eyes when she stood up and I can hear her footstep closing on me. What will she do to me? I seem to make her really mad this time despite the light-heartedness situation before we engaged into this conversation.

Slap!

A stinging pain on my cheek and a loud slapping sound echoed through my eardrum for the first time in my life. I don't even need to open my eyes to know that I was slapped by Elisha.

"There. Wake up already Hyoudou Issei." Elisha's voice registered into my mind as I opened my eyes to look what expression she's making.

She's not annoyed like usual nor was she angry at my answer.

She's furious.

"I can't stand it when I hear you babbling about how you're empty and all. How you can't enjoy everything and useless things like that." She paused to regain her breath and continued her words. "Listen here, people-no human aren't supposed to be like that you idiot. I don't care whether you're smarter than other kids or aren't normal in the first place, kid like you aren't suited to think about that kind of complicated things.

"If you feels sad then cry! If you feels happy then smile! And if it's necessary then laughs to show your happiness, heck you can even whine to me too if you want…" She trailed off. I who still in trance hearing what she sputter out to me could only watch what she will do next.

Her hand balled up into a fist, the next thing I know I already closed my eyes preparing for the punch to come from the blue-haired woman.

But the pain never comes.

Slowly I take a peek of what is going on and my mouth went agape at what she's doing right now.

Crying.

Elisha, that Elisha. The woman who saved me through the fire, the one who always put on a cold façade, the one who hide her emotion, the one who always look so strong and invincible, right now at this moment that woman are crying in front of me.

"But you never do that… you never show any emotion just that empty looks on your face as if it was fixed for your entire life searching for something that can't be attained, an impossibility."

Despite what she says is directed toward me, I could see that it meant something else. She's angry but not at me, as if she's angry at herself.

"Elisha I-"

"Goddammit, is world really such an unfair place to have a kid like you exist? Can you answer me, the big guy up there?"

I quickly realized that the "big guy" she meant was the god. Why's she frustrating over for someone like me in the first place? I don't really have any problem don't I?

"And then you just suddenly give up. You spent an entire two whole years with me trying to search for happiness and I was relieved that you have at least someone you can call friends to help you. But then you just told me you don't feel anything for them, even if you would likely never see your friend again. That's right isn't it? Hyoudou Issei?"

"I… yes..."

"Then why are you always playing with them?"

"Because there's nothing that I could do, you're the one who told me to enjoy my childhood."

"And did you enjoy it?"

I stayed silent at her question. It's true though all I'm doing for the whole two years was spent for uselessly chasing Irina and teaching Sella, and yet despite that I still do it because out of curiousness. Maybe if I do what Irina does I will become like her? Maybe if I teach Sella, someone like me, to become what she is right now I can do it too?

But the result is nothing, and just yesterday night I realized the downside of having emotion. You can't become happy forever, there's always obstacle and you would often grief and frustrate over them.

And so I give up on searching happiness and doing so also giving up my chance to regain emotion.

She put her hand on top of her eyes to hide her crying, moment later I could see that she already regained her façade once again and looking at me seriously. If there's any trace of crying on her face it's just a small trace of water on her cheeks and other than that is her usual professional face, I was once again surprised by how she can easily switch emotion at will just like that.

"So you will just give up? Living your empty life just like that?"

"If doing that means I won't have to lose something then-"

My word was cut off when once again I was slapped by Elisha.

"If you just decided you will live your life the way you described before… That's… that's not living at all, it's the same as death."

Death? Yeah, maybe now I know why I have empty eyes like those of deadman.

I have "died" at that fire. All that left is this broken shell called "Hyoudou Issei" and the inside is empty, devoid of all desire of living.

"Damn it, that's why I hate idiot like you." She said while scratching the back of her head. "Put your ears to use and listen carefully you stupid kid, life isn't something that is means to be enjoyed, it's a journey for purpose. Everyone out there must have a purpose in their life whether it's small or not."

"To survive?" I asked her while there's a chance that I will be slapped or worse punched, I decided to voice out my curiosity. Despite what she said to listen, I still took the gamble to do it.

Fortunately she answered much to her dismay if the sigh was any indication. "To survive is not a purpose it's an instinct for human. Suffering, joy, sadness, despair, happiness, pleasure, is just something that you got from "living" your life. You want to be happy? That's why it's important to have desire, something you wanted and it will guide you in the direction of happiness."

"But to do so must I have emotion? To feel sad? To lose something?"

"That's why you must be prepared to face problems. You can't expect to have your entire life filled with happiness. Sometimes you have to suffer, sometimes you have to do something you don't want, because… no, trust me reality didn't treat me well."

"That's… what human life really is?" I asked in low voice. I never once feel sad after I was rescued by Elisha, so I thought that I won't have to experience sadness. But even so, to have emotion I must prepare to experience it huh… suffering?

"There's people who said that "Life is something to be enjoyed" while partly it may be true, only an idiot will believe that as long as you don't do anything, life will pamper you. No, it's the reverse instead. Life will instead impose the harsh truth on you. And when you realize that you will regret it, that's why I'm going to say this once…"

She paused to close her eyes before opening it up again while looking at me kindly.

"Do what your own desires. That's what it means to be happy, not just obeying what you're told but instead do what you really want."

Then after she said that she sat onto her cushion once again, this time she looks more tired than she was at the morning. Looks like I really did a number against her eh?

"I…" The word was stuck in my throat when I see her like this. Maybe what she said is true, maybe it's not my time to give up yet, no it's decided that I won't give up again. But even though I have decided to not give up… "What I'm going to do?"

"Do what you usually do, the thing that you desire the most, something that make you happy."

"Elisha I've told you that I can't-"

"You really don't know anything about yourselves huh? You don't even know what is enjoyment meant for you?" She asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose in disappointment, most likely at me. "Even without you realizing, you must've done that unconsciously. For a smart kid like you what do you unconsciously focused at? Is it studying? Is it playing with your friend? It's not like that right?"

"I… what I'm doing unconsciously?"

"Even after your wound was healed, you're still thinking about… what that boy's name again? Ah, right Kaizuki. Mind to tell me why? It seems like unsolved problem right?"

"What does this have relation with what I'm going to do? Why asking something like this?"

"Because it's necessary, happiness did not come in one form. Every person out there haves their own happiness, heck remember what you mentioned two years ago? Someone who enjoys other people suffering? Maybe somewhere out there."

"That's…"

She gives me a light chuckle as if reading my thought despite the weight of this entire situation for me. "Impossible? No, no you misunderstand the meaning of happiness kid. When other people enjoy the suffering of others that doesn't mean you must follow it, everyone have their own happiness, whether it's just a small wish of love or money."

What do I focused at? What does I'm doing unconsciously yet I put more effort than other? Is it… When I save people?

I almost forgot that two years ago I was smiling because… I saved someone? It's vague, but maybe I unconsciously running around the town to stopped the bully because I want to save someone not just because I'm role-playing with Irina.

Saved Irina by becoming her friend, saved Sella by stopping her suffering, and I don't know how but I was smiling because Elisha's happy. Did I really save all of them?

Love, Hate, Sad, Joy, I believe that the great fire had erased almost every part of me, and the only thing that left is…

My desire to save.

So I really do it unconsciously? I seek enjoyment by saving people?

"I… I will do it…" I said still unsure of what I'm going to do if I decided to chase the impossible again, yesterday I was pondering about what it truly meant to save someone. What is my dream? What I want to do? Is it truly just a matter of saving other people lives?

"What is it meant… to save people? What kind of person will I become if I want to save people?" I asked to Elisha, again I always turn to her when I had questions to ask… but this time was different.

This will change my life forever. I will become completely different person depending on what her answer will be.

She chuckled a little probably at the sheer ridiculousness of my question, opening her mouth she answers.

"A hero, allies of justice, superhero, or anything along this ridiculous line."

Hero…

I stood up from my seat, Elisha doesn't even questioning my action only took a single glance at her side to confirm what I'm doing before she turn back her attention to the TV.

"Elisha, I must meet Irina now."

She barely giving me a glance and, the only answer I received was a nod which served as indication for me to go.

Just before I went out the room I swear that I see her smiling.

I was happy when I saved people. And I unconsciously smiled around her when she's happy. I must be really idiot to not notice it until now. She only seeks to have normal life around her with someone that she can call family, she regret of not having anyone close to her when she need them.

She said that she haves a regret about her daughter.

The reason why she's happy right now was there's someone that she can call her own family, empty boy that she saved from the fire. We are living a normal life like how I was her son and she being my own mother.

How can't I notice it sooner?

Without doing anything I've saved Elisha.

 **-0-**

Irina will go today and I will never see her again, before that I must give her the answer of what she asked yesterday. I've decided what I want to become, my dream, my belief, my ideals, and the very thing that shaped my being.

She won't go to school today or so she said. I must break my perfect absence to meet her, it was now or never. Luckily, Elisha did not seem to mind what I do. Well considering her "scolding" just before, I was very sure that she will not take it easy if I decided to do nothing about this.

And so I went to the park we usually played, the place where it all started.

In there I meet her, sitting alone on the swing with no one to play with her. Usually it was either me or Sella that pushed her and even more unusual was me who sit on that being pushed by the two other girls.

If there's one word that enough to describe this, I've no doubt that it was lonely.

It's like seeing me in the past all over again, except that there's no empty-eyed boy in the park and instead it was the orange-haired girl.

Approaching her, I called out her name.

She quickly spun her head backward to see me and needless to say, her expression turned from dull to surprised.

"I-Ise!? Aren't you supposed to be in school?" She said while getting off from the swing and running up to face me.

I shake my head before replying "No, I need some time to take my mind off." I said and let out a sigh to show how tired I am. "And I can't just let you go without answering what you asked right?"

"I asked you something?" She asked wonderingly before her expression turned into one kind of fear. "I-I never borrow any 500 yen from you when I was going to buy ice cream!"

I chuckled a little at her sudden change of fear. "No, Irina. I don't mean that kind of "ask", it's not like you whined to me last month to buy your favorite picture book right?" I teased her a little.

Honestly I don't really care about losing my pocket money, much less when I give it to her. Although I once asked her why she need so much thing she only answer me that it was girl necessity which I already know was a lie.

Add the fact that I very rarely used my pocket money to buy something. I already content with what I have and I don't need any kind of unhealthy snack, not when I was still a child, I don't want to get sick often just because I eat junk food when I was still a kid.

Recovering from the almost-found-out situation, she finally asked. "Y-Yeah! A-Anyway why are you here?"

"I've said it before right? I will answer your question yesterday."

"Yesterday? O-Oh, that… it's just a joke Ise. You don't need to answer it seriously…"

Hmm? She seems unsure about it, looks like she haven't yet gotten over the fact that we will never see each other again huh?

"Joke? You mean you don't really want to follow your father footstep? To become a hero you always want to be?"

"Well…" She trailed off while twiddling her finger. "I just don't know about it again… in one hand I still want to be a hero but then again it's just a dream right? It can't be realized that eas-"

I cut her off by delivering a chop on her head barely hearing 'Fue!?' from her. "That's what it means to have dream, something that we dream of having, achieving the impossible. It's fine to have an impossible dream like being a hero in fact that's what I want to tell you."

Rubbing the spot where my chop landed she asked not even angry at what happened to her head. "B-But, aren't you the one who said that it's better to think realistic? Then isn't what you said before is contradicting to what you do right now?"

"Again, that's where you're wrong from Iri. I never said that becoming a hero is impossible right? I just said to think realistic, what it means to become a hero and to achieve it." I said to her while she's looking up at me who taller than her. Then my hand landed on top of her head before proceeding to pat it.

"Is it just by protecting what close to you? Or protecting the innocent lives? Both are right in my own way. Think again Iri, to become hero what do you need to do in reality? You don't need to defeat monster to become hero, you also don't need to have superpower to become one. Turn out it's not really impossible to become one."

"What do you mean? What does being hero really mean?"

I tried to put on as much strength as I could muster to make this fake smile. Even though it was a fake one, I'm sure Irina wouldn't notice. "Everyone is different in their own ways. You can't expect every people out there to have the same idea as you do right? That's what it means to have ideals, something to protect, your very own ideals."

"My… ideal?"

I give her a quick nod before asking, "Iri- no Shidou Irina, what do you truly want? Why do you want to become a hero?"

Irina was silent after the info dump that I gave her, only opted to look down so that I can't see what face she makes right now. Just before I want to pat her head to give her encouragement, she suddenly looks up to meet my face.

"I want to become hero so that Papa and Mama don't have to burden themselves to protect me…" She began slowly to gather some breath before continuing. "I… I want to protect what I loved the most, my friends and my family… I-I want to stay with you and Sella so that I can show you I can protect you both! I don't want you to get hurt like you protected Sella! So… so…" Her voice became smaller as her amethyst-colored eyes tearing up.

Decided to gives her one last comfort I pat her head once again. "It's fine."

"Hue?"

"We will meet again Irina that much I can assure you." I said to cheer her up. Although our future is unknown, there's no one that told me I can't change it to my favor. "Come to think of it I never told you my dream right?"

"Eh? You've a dream?" Irina asked no doubt shocked that someone like me have one after what she sees in me after all these two years.

"It's just something that I came up with at the last moment. Its line of job is probably similar to you though."

"Similar? What do you mean by that?"

"Just don't laugh okay? I will answer your question." I said to reassure her who's still looking at me expectantly, no longer was she crying and instead she's excited like how she usually is.

Good, at least she wasn't sad anymore.

"I want to become a hero."

….

"…Come again?"

I sighed at her obviously disbelieving what she has just heard. "You want to become a hero right? Well maybe I was a bit different. I want to save everyone, innocent or bad guys, as long as it saving more lives."

Maybe it's impossible but the more people I save, the better it was right? In my life I was never greedy or selfish so I will try to pour all my selfishness into this dream of mine. To saves the lives of others. I think Elisha once explained to me about something like this, like allies of justice.

"I want to be hero of justice."

That should be enough to trigger it anytime right now.

One, two, three…

"HAHAHAHA!" Irina who just before was in verge of breaking into tears right now is bursting out laughing, presumably because of me. But I don't care, in fact isn't it better if she's laughing instead of crying?

She threw her head back and laughed out loud that I'm sure if there's anyone in the park right now they would think that she's crazy. I mentally sighed at her form who's still laughing so hard, I already know this will happen but it's necessary to tell her this.

And finally, after god-know-how-long her laughter has finally died down leaving us in the silent park once again.

"Done laughing?"

"Y-Yeah, I never heard of something so funny…" She said while wiping her tear away.

I frowned at her reasoning, "What? Aren't there a lot of superhero movies out there who have said the same thing like me? The movie that we watch at your house also said the same thing."

She almost burst out laughing once again but before she can do that I gives her the most serious glance that I can made right now. "I-It's not the sentence that makes me laugh. You can say such a serious thing with monotone and bland face, like you aren't serious at all."

"I. Am. Serious, heck in fact that's the main reason I want to meet you here."

At this she was clearly surprised, obviously she haven't made much thought about my dream which she laugh at. "Huh? You really came here just to tell me that?"

"I am." I sighed again to tell her how tired I am at her antic. "Now, how is it? Still feeling down that I won't be in England to support you?"

Then her face flushed red in embarrassment as I pat her head once more, huh somehow she doesn't seems to mind it when I do this, once I do this in the past I came home with a bruise on my cheek.

"N-No. Thank you, Ise. I really need to do much more if I'm going to protect you right?" She smiled while she says that.

"Don't worry. Right now it's still too soon for you to protect me." I said to assure her, it's still too early for a kid like her. She deserves a chance to use as much as her childhood can to act like how a kid should, unlike me who can't even relieve his childhood time. "And truthfully you don't really need to worry yourselves about me, I can protect myself."

"And Sella? What about her?" She asked me and I took one moment to think before I realized.

Ah… Damn it.

"I-I can protect her. It's not like I ever leaves her side when the moment needed right?" I lied to her. I was too focused about meeting with Irina that I didn't realizes it.

Sella's still in school and Kaizuki who's in the same school as she is…

I cursed myself for my own foolishness. I hope that she's safe, at least safe enough that I don't need to go out of the trouble to take out whatever out there stupid enough to harm her. Not that I consider Kaizuki stupid but his reasoning is stupid as hell, I know that the death of his mother is enough reasoning to extract vengeance against her but… to this day I still don't know who killed his mother.

The only thing that keeping his hand away from Sella is me, I don't know how it can happen but ever since the incident, there's a lot of rumor about me. How I was revived back from the grave, how I was actually a zombie, how I'm actually some kind of non-human being, what's with my scary-look that struck fear deep into children heart.

It was the only thing that keeping other bullies especially children made any move toward Sella. My name struck fear because of my bloodied-form when I was beaten up that day is like a nightmare to some people, the way that my bone made unnerving cracking sounds, how I was staring at the children with a face messed up by blood.

It's a good thing that there's not so many people who was at the park that day. But that did not keep the rumors from spreading up though.

People in the school tend to avoided me because I was creepy or they're afraid of something bad will happen if they're talking to me. Especially that group of kid who directly had a hand in the incident, even now they still can't look at my eyes directly. But thankfully Kaizuki is smart enough to not cause another incident like before.

He said that the one who kill his mother has white hairs and red eyes, exactly the same as Sella. But he did not mention if the killer was kid or adult, which mean it did not eliminate the chance that it could be other people.

And Sella has said that she did not have parents only her grandfather.

"Hey Ise!"

Huh? I snapped out of my thought when I see Irina is waving her hand in front of me, an act that's often used to return me back into reality. I was delving too much into my thought that I almost forgot my entire reason for coming here.

Oh well I'm sure that the teacher won't allow bullying in the school… right?

"You okay there?" She asked me to which I nodded my head slightly. "That's good. I don't know what to do when my best friend passed out with no reason in my last day here." She said while sighing out of relief and I can't help but think that the last part was supposed to be joke.

"I was just deep in thought but thanks fo-Ack." My word was cut short when Irina suddenly flicked my forehead. I glared at the shorter assailant in front of me. "Why did you do that?"

The orange-haired girl didn't even seem to care about my pain and only puffed up her cheeks to make her looks angry. "It's because you're so formal, I've said it before we're best friend basically okay? You don't need to thank me about something natural."

Rubbing the spot where she has just flicked me, I closed one of my eyes then sighed. My unclosed eye watched carefully if Irina will make any funny moves again, deciding that it's already safe enough to talk with her. I made a begging motion to apologize to her.

"That said, why do you think we will meet again Ise?" Irina asked me out of sudden.

I put on thoughtful expression. Well this is hard to explain but it's not like I can't go to England in the future right? As long as she won't forget me then it's possible to do so.

"It's hard to explain." I say to her which she then tilted her head to the side obviously confused at what I'm saying. "But… let's just say that it's not possible. I don't know maybe you will be the one who came back here or… say if I ended up somewhere in England you can find me."

What am I saying? The chance that the latter happen is next to none, well unless I ended up caught smuggling my way to England then yeah… I can see what happen.

"Hmm, well I don't really want to know what happen. It's better for the future to be a surprise for me, who know maybe I won't even recognize you at all when I meet you again." She said before she laughed a little when she thought about my appearance in the future.

"That aside when will you go to the airport?"

"Tonight, oh yeah I need to go back to pack my things!" Then she cast her eyes downward to avoid my gaze, I can see a hint of red at her cheeks when she does that. She took out something from her breast-pocket and given it to me.

"This is… a cross?" I said while carefully holding the wooden-made cross chained to a simple small rope big enough to wrap an adult neck. Although the wooden cross looks fragile when I went to squeeze it, surprisingly it's hard enough to make my hand goes white. It also light enough for me to throw it in the midair and catch it before it hit the ground.

"Hey! Don't throw it like that, it's a holy artifact!" Irina said obviously angry at the fact that I just carelessly throwing such a thing. I quickly say sorry to her, well two apologizes in one day. Usually it was her who apologizes to me though.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"Well actually it's not really artifact from the church, I made it myself." She said embarrassed at the simple fact and avoiding my gaze ever since I apologized to her. "Before I meet you again you must keep it safe ok? And when we finally have our exciting reunion in the future you will return it back to me."

"Why must I do a pointless thing like this? Isn't it safer if you just take it with you to England?"

"B-Because…" She trailed off only to find me looking back at her and she once again cast her eyes downward, weird. "I… I'm afraid that you will forget me…"

Oh, human really does something weird to remember each other huh? This wooden cross is one of the examples. I faked my smile as best as I could, all the smiles that I made during my day with Irina were fakes. Something that shouldn't be forgiven should she know about it, but that's the way human is.

Sometimes they will hide their own problem behind that fake smile.

"Even without something as petty as this, I can remember you alright?" I said while trying to put the cross-necklace around my neck. I'm sure Elisha can understand this… I often see her read a bible after all. "Sometimes when I was eating oranges my mind shifted back to you."

Trying to joke is something that I prefer not to. I prefer to be blunt and sharp.

Irina did not seem to take it well at the fact that I compare her hair color to a fruit. "Uuu, what's with you! I've gone out all the way to give this for you to remember me and here you're comparing me to a fruit!?"

Needless to say I did not come out unscathed that day.

- **0-**

One year passed ever since Irina going back to England, thankfully there's nothing complicated happen over the course of the year. Usual stuff happens, learning to do house chores from Takagi-san, not-so-new stuff from school, train myself, learning how to become better member of society.

I begin to spent more time with Elisha, often caught her smoking every once in a while. Because Irina had gone away, everyday did not seem as playful as before. I can't blame anyone for this, not even Sella who prefer to talk with me than playing.

But even though it's just talking with Sella, it's strangely… relaxing to say the least. To be able to take my mind off from overworking my brain talking simple things with Sella, conversation with her was simple enough which I assume was from how her knowledge around the world is limited.

She have begun to talk more than necessary, I also seen her smiling more often. Smiling at new things, picture books, movie, new food, lately I invited her to my house simply because I was curious to see her reaction.

I did not expect her to ask about every single new thing that she encountered that day all while wearing small smile across her face when I explained it to her.

While it was exhausting to explain it all to her, it was worth it. I get to see her reaction, spending my useless free time, and teaching her to grow. Yeah the last part was maybe the most useful thing that I got from spending my time with her, growing as in personality part.

The major change that I see from her is she beginning to have a personality while before she would only follow what we say, now she would ask before I ordered her.

Because of Irina disappearance, I was invited by Takagi-san to meet her daughter Takagi Murayama. Takagi-san believed that Murayama need more interaction with kids at the same age as her, she goes to the same school as me but apparently she was really shy that she always tries to avoid conversation.

And so when I meet her… it doesn't have to be said that our first meeting was really awkward. Fortunately she seems to be a good girl and does not believe in rumor, yes the bad rumor about me have even spread outside of the school.

I'm glad that there are few people who knew the truth like Elisha, Sella, Takagi-san and her daughter. While it may seem stupid but there's few adult who believes in rumor too, I mean really? A revived zombie walking on this town all while the sun is shining the most? Yep, apparently there is quite a lot of delusional adult out there.

Takagi-san has suggested me to switch to Murayama instead maybe because we're close enough… as in like how kids does of course. It's also better for me to do so because this way I can differentiate between the older Takagi and the younger one. Her father always comes home late so it's understandable for me to not be able to meet him in day-light.

Sella and Murayama relationship is… again it's awkward. One is shy to engage in conversation and the other is only caring about learning new things and mostly talking to me, in the end it was me who decided to put an end to this.

By inviting them to my house, Murayama seemed to greatly liking Kendo despite her shyness so she didn't even need to think about it considering our house has a good unused Dojo to train. And so when both of them are in my house, I ended up have to be a training partner for Murayama.

Sella only watched from afar, she doesn't interfere or asking us when we were sparring. Well it can't be considered sparring though. Mostly I was being a punching bag for her to train hitting the enemy. Surprisingly she seems to get a knack for Kendo, well for a shy one who knows some sort of talent hidden in her?

School has been normal except for the fact that the usual dominant Irina is replaced by submissive Murayama of course. But I didn't complain, simply because I think this is natural.

About the wooden cross that Irina gives to me, I didn't always wear it but sometime when I want to take my mind off I just look at the cross to relieve what happen when Irina was still here. I didn't really remember because the time that I spent with her tended to be easily forgettable.

It's not like I was a bad person but when you spent time with her almost every single day just to play the same thing every day. The most I can remember is important thing like how she talks, how she act, how she handle thing around her, etc.

For me I think it's because it was more important to remember the person herself than to just remember my experience with her.

If one were to ask what's the most memorable thing that I did with her is how I confessed my dream which is also my last meeting with her. Because it changed my life, my entire being, how I live through this empty-no I can't call it empty anymore right?

I can't forget about her, not because of this cross, sure it help me delve through my memories but in the end it came down to me to decide whether to forget her or not.

And so life went on…

 **-0-**

I found myself sighing a lot today. Not that it's been a tiring day but, oh well to be honest every day is the same tiring day as is today. Today I cooked dinner with the help of Takagi-san and Elisha… doing the usual thing.

But what made me use up so much of my precious energy was Sella and Murayama, enough to be said while they're not as demanding as Irina they made my life different in every other way. Today the three of us played in my house and again I was beaten up by Murayama.

She progressed a lot from the shy girl that I first met to become what she is today, although she's still uncomfortable around unfamiliar people, at least I'm glad that I don't need to help her every day in school to hold a conversation.

Still it doesn't change the fact that I'm tired, watching movie together and explained them to Sella was one of the most tiring thing that I'm doing today more than beaten up by Murayama in fact.

I gulped down the whole tea not even caring about the taste and switched my attention to the wooden-cross that Irina gave me.

Feeling the warm hard texture in my hand, I put it back in my pocket before finally going out to put my body to rest. My room is in the back of the house so it's not really far from living room. Since I turned 9 this year, Elisha has deemed me as old enough so she switched her room to the guest room which is far enough from mine.

There are a lot of unused room in this house, considering there's only two of us who lives in this quite-big house so yeah if one of us want to sleep in another room then it's just a matter of moving the stuff. I just took it as she want a sense of familiarity because some of the unused room is western-styled.

I go to the porch simply because I want to see the full moon. Over these past few years, I've learnt how to reduce my sleeping time. Human should sleep enough so that the stamina they used for day could be restored and especially children where their body were still growing.

But I'm reducing my sleeping time to reasonable amount of what my body and mind can handle. It will do me no good should I get sleepy in the day.

Making my way to the porch I see another person has already taken up my spot.

"Hey, it's rare to see you here." I greeted nonchalantly at the blue haired woman.

"Just staring at the moon, I know it's not really my thing but, eh screw it I just get the urge to do it." She said throwing a glance at me before focusing on the moon again.

Without wasting my time, I was already sitting beside her, staring at the moon. Huh, the moon looks really big seen from here. It's like I can grab it when I reached out my hand…

"Enjoying the view?"

I nodded while taking out the wooden-cross from my pocket. A while ago I've stared long at it but just as I thought it's useless to do it, Irina is in England right now so the chance for me to meet her is nigh-impossible right now.

So all I can do is grow old enough and meet Irina when I was able to huh? Well I can't imagine what kind of woman will she become in future, maybe it would be an exciting reunion for the three of us. I'm thinking of inviting Murayama too but again it's the future so it's unknown whether or not we will still be in the same city.

"Thinking about that Irina-girl?"

"Yes, maybe she has become one of the most important persons in my life." I said while still staring at the cross in my hand. I wrap it around my neck and staring back at the moon.

"Hoho, well, well looks like you're already growing to become a ladykiller."

"What? No, not that sort of importance I mean."

She chuckled at my reaction and ruffled my hair. "Well I don't need to tell you this but with your looks I can assure you that many women will come after you in the future."

"Sheesh, it's not like I will marry more than one." I said stating matter-of-fact. Sorry but to love more than one girl is not really my thing, if one is already hard enough then what about two? Or three? Probably I won't be able to keep up.

And the fact that I still haven't able to love someone is also made it hard.

"I'm just joking, I'm a married woman too you know?"

Elisha has been telling me that she has a husband but he has passed away now, she doesn't mention anything about having daughter anywhere though. Am I misheard it somehow?

"That said you haven't really changed eh."

"What? What do you mean? With all the lectures you've been giving me all these past years, you said that I don't have any changes?"

"Yes, you don't change. I'm going to say that "Time is bringing a change to all of us" but again it seems that it doesn't matter to you."

Confused at her statement, I asked her. "What kind of changes do you mention? Is it about my personality?" While it was understandable for me who still doesn't have personality to call my own I don't think that I haven't changed.

After all I've something to fight for now didn't I?

"Hah! So you really don't notice it?" She paused to inhale and her gaze placed at the moon once again while continuing. "You haven't changed kid, the lectures that I give you is something to push something that you don't realize having inside you. I don't add something new into you neither did I changed how you think, I just make you realize."

Thinking back about it maybe that's true…

My reason for living, to save everyone, is something that's not Elisha gave me. It's something born from myself, no born isn't the correct term to word it.

It's already there, I just don't realize it.

The fire didn't erase everything, the last moment that I had in that fire was when I'm going to trade my heart for my body to survive but Elisha saved me before that can happen.

It didn't erase my name, it didn't erase my desire, but sadly it erased most of my emotion making me incapable of leading normal life.

Then again there's something strange about my desire, while I understand I want to save people. The matter about the importance of one life is something that I haven't able to comprehend. While I understand how precious people lives is, my mind seems unable to understand how one can decide whether people was precious or not.

I just said that Irina is one of the most important persons in my life because she is one of the reason I realized my life meaning, but I never had any feeling for her.

And of course if someone asked who's the most important person in my life, I would no doubt say it was Elisha because she's the one who've rescued me, taking care of me, giving me love like how mother was to it son.

But once again…

I don't have any feeling for Elisha.

I closed my eyes when I was deep in thought but I opened it again when I realized that I've been grabbing the wooden cross hanging from my neck. I switched my attention to the one beside me and found her staring at the moon as if longing for something.

"Kid." I perked up when she suddenly called me while she didn't moving from her spot. "You're already old enough right?"

"Yeah? What's about it? You've already moved your stuff to the new room right?" I asked her not recognizing the true meaning of her question.

"No, no, it's not about the room. Well… how to say it…" She sighed and used the thinking pose, like she was searching for some answer. "It's just… you're old enough to stay in the house alone right?"

I nodded and my mind processing what she has just said interrupted her before she can continue. "Wait, you want to go somewhere?"

"Yeah, I have some business with my… client. He wanted to meet me in the England so next week I won't be here for one month."

England? The place where Irina goes?

"Will you meet Touji-san there?" I asked not mentioning Irina so that she won't catch what I'm truly asking.

"Yeah. In fact he's the one who arranged the meeting. Simply put my client is working in the same line of job as him. What you want to go there?"

"I…" I didn't continue my word and bringing the wooden-cross up to my face. What am I going to do if I happen to meet Irina again? What is my purpose for coming there? Didn't I make a promise to her that I will give her back the cross when I meet her again? So our exciting reunion(as Irina called it) shouldn't happen this early right?

But Irina once said… Friend doesn't need a reason to meet each other.

"Well I suppose another ticket won't hurt my pocket…" Elisha mutter in small voice, I managed to catch the meaning in her word… wait don't tell me.

"Elisha wait I didn't truly mea-"

"Pack your thing kid, next week we're going to England."

So much for exciting reunion…

 **-0-0-0-**

 **Done!**

 **I'm tired of writing Issei's needlessly slice of life but I think it was necessary so I can't skip that. And it's too slow pacing if I keep this up yeah I know it's boring but well it's going to change in next chapter. Finally! The exciting time skip and Issei first run in with Supernatural! Is it fallen angel? Is it Devil? Or awakening his sacred gear?**

 **I don't get too much sleep because of F/GO so I'm going to sleep instead of writing. Again this meant slow update but it's not dead, don't worry.**

 **And if all of you who read this chapter have some time to spare please review, though in the end it's up to you...**

 **But really, please review.**


	5. First Try

**For AgentSex question or anyone out there wondering why there's so much plot hole. I purposefully made it until I can reveal it in the future but because it seems like it was too big to hide, I will answer.**

 **Spoiler!**

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 **Spoiler Alert. Read at your own risk. Spoiler for future chapters!**

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 **Issei didn't think like a normal child or any 6-years old, able to hold intelligent conversation with someone older than him/debate, strange right? It's like Issei isn't a child in the first place. If you think like that then it's good, you're already grasping for the truth.**

 **Because Issei mentality isn't that of a 6-years old.**

 **Remember that dream Issei experienced in chapter 4? It's like memories of other person right? And Issei said it's like someone from the past era. He didn't summon any Heroic Spirit for the past chapter so it's impossible to have dream cycle, it's actually the biggest hint to Issei identity.**

 **He didn't mention it but he tried really hard to act like a normal kid but his mind is already thinking like an adult. Now imagine a college student playing with elementary student, it would look like out-of-place right? Fortunately Issei still has kid body but his mind wasn't and the worst thing was he can't remember his own memories.**

 **So I'll reveal it early because I admit, it's a pretty big plot hole. Anyone who doesn't want to know it early please skip this part.**

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 **Issei isn't a kid, he's adult in kid body but he doesn't remember it. He himself admitted that he's not normal.**

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 **About Elisha not searching for Issei's parent record. Actually it's in the one of the scrapped scene where before Issei woke up in chapter 2, Elisha already searched for Issei's birth parents. It still happens but as I said it happened before Issei woke up so I can't show it unless I switch the POV, this is the mistake on my part. I should've mentioned Issei asking about his birth parents so I'm sorry.**

 **Spoiler End.**

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 **Alright I've shortened the monologue for this chapter and I've resolved to do more action than having thought for too long. Issei awakened his Sacred Gear in this chapter (it's not Boosted Gear). The plot is moving and time skip! Exactly 1~2 years before canon.**

… **.**

Fuck.

I cursed myself as I run through the park, chased by something that naturally shouldn't exist, a supernatural. I didn't need to think about my current situation, my feet carried me to nowhere while I'm trying to gather my breath.

"Ei!" With a cute, child-like innocent voice came from my back accompanied by a red-colored spear-shaped projectile launched itself onto my unguarded back.

No time to think about the abnormality of the strange projectile, I side-stepped and barely escaped the death brought by the black-winged assailant. The launched projectile embedded into the stone road before disappearing into nothingness.

Looking back at who wanted to kill me is still gives me a lot of disbelief. It did not even reach the highest peak of my imagination that I will be killed by someone like this.

She's a little girl, not even reaching my age, with dirty-blonde hair tied into short-twintails. Her blue eyes is glaring at me in anger, if I didn't know better I would think that she's just a little kid pouting not some sort of being that will kill me in any second. She wore a gothic-lolita outfit which strangely complying her image right now, Angel of Death.

And the most noticeable feature from her is the black-colored wing like those of a crow sprouting from her back.

"Stop running away won't you!" She screamed in frustration as she conjured or whatever is a correct term to create another similar spear-shaped projectile. She created it from nothing as if it didn't matter much to her, something which is impossible for normal human to do and yet I witnessed it right here right now.

And I will die to the thing that I considered impossible until now.

Resuming my track, I let myself carried by my feet to anywhere around this park or wherever it is, as long as I can lose her. Dodging the red strange-projectile aiming at where my head been a second ago, I tried to steady my breath from running around so much but to no avail the little girl didn't care about my situation and created another one of those projectile.

Gone were my normal life from yesterday and I'll die any moment now if I don't keep running but even so that won't guarantee my survival, it was clear as day that she didn't show any sign of tired from this little game of chasing me around.

She's flying and I'm running, there's clear difference between the two of them.

I'll die, I'll die if I don't stop her, if I don't do something…

But how? How can I stop her? How can something like her exist in this world!?

 **-0-**

My name was Hyoudou Issei, your average 3rd year middle-school student. I want to add "normal" to the part but I guess I wasn't really normal by everyone standard. I'm 15 years old with above-average intelligence, maybe I could be a genius but since I was busy almost every day, I didn't get the chance to study much.

"Alright everyone." The teacher said gathering every student in the class attention. "Because the mid-term exam is coming close, the school prohibited any activities of the clubs until the exam end. With that said, I hope all of you can use your times to study more for the exam."

Some student panicked at the mention of exam and some was groaning because of there will be no clubs for the whole week. Me? I'm calm of course, it's not like I was in some sort of danger. Even without studying, I'm pretty sure I can do most of it.

The result is different matter of course.

"Also one thing," The teacher added. "Because yesterday there was a murder near our area, it was suggested that all students would go straight home." And with the teacher has said his part, he left our classroom leaving us students chatting against each other.

Lately why did I get a bad feeling about the murder? The killer didn't happen to targeted random people right? If it was true then I guess I should get back home right now, but before I can do that, someone stopped me in my track.

Two students gathered around my desk, one was a boy with shaved off head leaving nothing but a trace of where hair should've been. He has small black eyes that no one would notice if he squinted.

The other one was a boy with short black hair and black eyes covered in glasses, by the glasses alone someone would probably think he's a smart guy which is the truth.

"Yo Ise." The bald guy greeted me in – my opinion – stupid way of greeting. Seeing that I haven't responded yet to his greeting he asked. "Oi, you're sick or what?"

I groaned at having to deal with his needless question. "Just your everyday headache of dealing with school problem, at this point you should know that it's the same thing every day Matsuda." I answered him before an idea popped out in my mind. "Oh, and exam is coming close of course."

"Geh, don't remind me that." The now-named Matsuda said as he lightly smacked my head.

"Good thing that there's no homework for us until the exam." The glasses guy added.

"Yeah, you make it sound like it's not an urgent matter." Matsuda said while groaned at the thought of facing the hard test. "Both of you who don't need to study for good grades don't know the pain of someone like me."

"Take back your word Matsuda. You should say that to this guy over there." The glasses guy said while pointing at me with his thumb. "At least I'm reviewing over the material to study."

"Just study instead of whining to me and if possible maybe you can tone down your perversion a bit?" I said to both people whom I considered friends in this school.

""No way."" Both said in unison while I groaned at my failed attempt.

"Oh well, at least I didn't have to care about Motohama." I said to both of them.

"Yeah, it should be this guy who you should be pitied Ise." The now-named Motohama chided in while pushing up his glasses.

While I spent time with our usual bantering, I received a text from Murayama telling me to go home together. I texted her to go without me before proceeding to involved myself in the conversation.

"I still can't believe that I call you two are my best friends." Matsuda groaned to which I responded by light chuckle the sentiment that I shared with Motohama.

"I can say the same to you." Motohama added.

"No offense, I didn't mean to add your suffering." I said while Motohama prepared his things before planning to go home.

Before I can added another word, I received another text from Murayama invited me to study together at my home for the test since I don't really have anything better to do, I texted back a positive answer.

While pocketing back my phone, I hear Matsuda pleading. "Can't I borrow your note Motohama?"

"Nope like I said, I need it to study." Motohama answered before proceeding to pat his back. "If you wanted to, ask the one that don't need to study."

Matsuda response when hearing that was slowly turned his head to face me while wearing his expression that makes you wanted to pity him. "Well since you seem like need it more than me," I said while reaching out from my bag and took out my notes. "I still need it for today though."

"Really?" Matsuda asked but before I can answer, he already taken the notes from my hand. "Thank you." Both of us sighed but in the corner of my sight, I could see Motohama smiled. At least I didn't need to scold him so he will study.

"Well… This is unusual for you Ise." Motohama said.

"What part is it that's unusual?"

"Well… usually you won't even think about studying in home." Instead it was Matsuda answered me while flipping over the page of my notebook. "Last time I checked that still doesn't change."

"Someone wanted me to study togeth-"

""What!? Who is it! Is it a girl!?"" They asked me in unison, grasping my collar for the answer. Matsuda didn't even notice that he dropped my notes from his hand.

"Murayama."

Suddenly after hearing my answer, they become dejected and the energy used to force me to give the answer before seems sapped instantly. Matsuda returned to his seat to take out his own note and started to copy my own while Motohama sat on the random seat while checking over his phone.

The reason why they started to act like this was because Murayama has sown the seed of fear on their heart. A few months ago, two of my friends were doing one of their usual activities which are peeping on Kendo Club. They were found out of course but they didn't fear it because it was a normal occurrence for them.

Beaten up by another group of girls from Kendo club didn't even feared them.

Until Murayama came to took the honor of personally beating them up of course.

I remember it when she's angry, her face was like a demon itself and the only thing I remember was she striking both of them in the place where sun can't shine again. **Repeatedly**. They took absences for one whole week to recover from the wound but since then, the perverted duo didn't start to peep on Kendo Club again.

Sadly that didn't apply to other club.

I sighed and checked my own phone. I still have some more time until dinner, when you have needlessly long free time, what will you do? I mused at my own thought. The owner at where I'm doing my part-time job suggested me to take some day off before the exam so I could study, but…

Here I am waiting for my so-called-best-friend.

Today specifically Matsuda seriously wanted to study, since it was a really rare thing for him to do, I just waited for him without any further word. Hopefully he will get the same grades as me if not better. The only thing that I worried is the Killer roaming around the area near our school, why didn't Matsuda started to taking notes ever since he comes in our class?

"Hey did you hear?" one of the female student in our class said. Since it's already time for any normal student to go home, it's just the three of us with a few students remained.

"That Kuoh Academy has become co-ed?"

Somehow even though the girl who said that is far away from us, both of my friends who somehow hear that stopped their current work and went closer to hear what the girls are talking.

Meanwhile I who still in my seat didn't move or budge any inch from my spot and instead just blinked at hearing the news to show my surprise. I was sitting behind the girls so it's possible for me to hear without having to lean my body closer.

"Yeah that! I wished that I can get into that school but the requirement to pass the exam is so high."

"But next year there will be male students in that school right?"

"Yup but most of the student will still be female of course, it's just recently become co-ed after all."

Hearing that both of my friends who haves taken the random seat to sit on, smiled creepily.

They… they didn't really think to enter that school right?

Then Motohama and Matsuda stood up from their seat and gathered around my seat, ooh I know where this will going.

""Ise…"" Both of them asked me at the same time which I groaned in response. ""We're best friends right?""

Just make it quick please…

 **-0-**

"So… mind to tell me why we're in here again?" I asked purely out of boredom.

"Since we've got the news of the famous rich-school Kuoh Academy back from those random girls." Motohama answered my question seriously while pushed his glasses up. "And we have to-no we should enter this school no matter what so we decided to look at our future school first and foremost."

"No in the first pl-"

"That's right my comrade! This is our heaven waiting for us with all those girls! The fact that this school only becomes co-ed this year mean we got plenty stock of good girls waiting to be seen at!" Matsuda said.

Really? Making such a needless speech about something like this?

In front of me was probably the most rich-looking building in this town. The exterior and inside look like something out of ancient era, not in term of age but the way the school pillar was decorated like those seen in movies and how the school gate look a lot like the one I seen from royalty house-gate.

There's also a fountain in the center of the school along with a big yard behind the school to hold sport activities. Even without seeing the inside detail of this school, I can make out conclusion that this is definitely rich-people school.

I can't get the overview of everything because of the fact that I was only standing in front of the school gate, I can't see the interior as well but that's painfully obvious because I wasn't student in this school.

I want to facepalm myself when in the presence of this two who I called my friends. Because we're standing in front of the school gate doing nothing but talking out loud to ourselves it was clear as day that we're getting a lot of weird stare from high-schooler that's going past us.

"You two," I started dismissing the stare from the older students. "Don't embarrass yours-"

""Shut it Ise."" They said once again perfectly in unison as if they won't stop no matter what I said to them.

"We must score a good grade to enter this place." Matsuda said, clenching his hand. "But if we succeeded then it's a heaven for us." He said to his so-called-perverted-comrade(not me).

"To obtain your happiness you must suffer first huh? It doesn't matter too much for me." Motohama said while taking his phone out and taking the picture of the school. "And so in the next year, we will get our very own harem!"

"Oh joy…" I said sarcastically. "Is it necessary for me to be here? I mean it's only the two of you who want to get into Kuoh for highschool right?" I asked the most obvious question.

"What are you talking about Ise?" Matsuda asked me obviously playing stupid at my question.

"Yeah Ise, what are you talking about?" Motohama added to making me believe him.

"No… just forget what I just said." I said which two of my friends nodded and staring at the huge school building, it's definitely different from ours huh? "Hey." I called out "If you want to enter this school, then maybe you guys want to study from now?"

"Must we really do that Motohama?" Matsuda asked with a looks of laziness plastered across his face.

"We must do it Matsuda." Motohama answered. "But don't worry. Even if you can't, then I will enjoy the paradise of women in your stead." He added the last statement obviously to make Matsuda suffer.

I sighed at their antic. Seriously, it's just a former girl school! Well obviously there will be more girls than boys in the school but… actually if we're going by the perverted hormonal teenager point of view then yeah I can sympathize with them.

There are still some teachers in the school and I'm just worried that if they just happen to see two middle-school students with creepy look on their face, what will they do I wonder? Well I will just go home after they stopped admiring the school an-

Wait.

I tapped Motohama's shoulder, garnering his attention. "Hey Motohama, mid-term in our school didn't happen to be earlier than the high-school one right?"

"No, it's the same." He answered before added. "Though sadly because of that, we can't see the girls running across the track wearing their bloomers or the panties from the tennis club girls."

I ignored his last part and shaking my head. "No, no, I didn't mean that. I mean why did they going home early than usual?"

I focused my ability to search for the weird presence. With my ability to know people feeling, I can use that to sense other people presence. The peoples in the interior building were obviously teachers or students but what I'm worried is behind the building…

It just gives me a bad feeling.

"Well apparently because of the murder roaming around, they decided to send students to go home earlier than usual." Matsuda answered me while scrolling down his phone while I was still in trance of the weird presence that gives me a bad feeling.

"Is there any building behind the main school?" I asked to my two friends.

"There is, it was the old-school building. Now it was used for the Occult Research Club though." Motohama answered me while checking his phone.

"How do you know that?" I asked him to which it was Matsuda who answered me while giving his phone to me. "This is?"

"It's the Kuoh Academy website. Just look at the list of the club and the news to see what the building really is." Matsuda answered me while I received his phone and scrolled down to the list of club.

Occult Research Club.

It's located behind the main school building. It was unused building which previously used to be a school, rumor said that the building was haunted which makes other people avoided this place. Huh, strangely it looks like they're really an **Occult Researcher** to be in this building. I searched for any important information again and finally got into the news part.

"Mid-term closing in, all clubs activities will be prohibited until the end of exam. No one should stay in the school late because of the murder." Pretty much the same for our school, if there's a murderer running around the town then it's obviously the most correct choices to announce something like this.

It was exception for the student council because they still have more paperwork to deal with and few clubs that have an urgent matter. Yeah, maybe it's just me being my usual paranoid self. Maybe this Occult Research Club has something to do that they stayed at school until late.

But still…

"Matsuda, Motohama… Let's go home."

"Huh? Why so sudden?"

I thought about it for a while before finally decided to lie "You haven't done copying my notes right?" I said to Matsuda. "Let's hurry to your home, Murayama has already texted me to come home." I lied through my teeth.

"Eh, fine then. We can always go back after Mid-term ended." Matsuda said while pocketing back his phone. "Your home or mine?"

"I've some new video to watch with together." Motohama suggested. "That's if you want to of course."

"Alright to Motohama's then!" Matsuda exclaimed happily ignoring the idea of studying just a moment ago.

Hopefully I'm wrong about the bad feeling.

 **-0-**

"I'm home."

After proceeding to take off my shoes, I noticed that there's a pair of familiar shoes in entry hall. Murayama is already here?

I went to the living room and found my assumption was correct. Murayama was already waiting while studying from the book, noticing my presence Murayama eyes laid on me and delighted look can be seen on her face.

"Ah, Ise welcome home." Murayama greeted me.

"Yep, where's Kazumi-san?"

"Mom went with dad this morning, they said that they will be back after the dinner and gives me the key."

I see. Well it's not a rare thing for Murayama or Kazumi-san to sleep over here when I was still a kid, because I don't have Elisha anymore, it's up to Kazumi-san to take care of me.

Yes, Elisha died to unknown cause 6 years ago. I remember it was exactly after we, no, I alone came back from our England trip. Back then I woke up and found out that the house was eerily silent and an unknown presence was coming from the living room.

That morning I meet a man, I didn't really remember his appearance but when I went to the living room, I didn't find Elisha waiting for me like usual but instead an unknown man telling me that Elisha died in England because of accident in her job.

The only thing that the man can do to repay Elisha was sending me back to Japan, he gives Elisha's bank account and credit card to me and left without telling me what exactly the cause of Elisha's death or any further details.

I just accepted it and Elisha never came back again, which sadly confirms my theory that I didn't cry even though I just lost the most important person in my life.

It also didn't help that my memories at England was a bit fuzzy almost non-existent when I tried to remember it. When I tried to delve through it, it's like something was obstructing me from remembering it. But even so I still remember that I was definitely there, I was definitely at England.

The fact that I still have the wooden-cross is also the mystery. Irina said to gives it back to her once I meet with her again but I didn't remember meeting her, the first day in England was still embedded in my memories but the week after that? Not so much.

Did I meet with Irina or not?

What did I do in England?

I didn't remember crying for Elisha but the ironic thing was that I found out that I'm starting to be more capable of expressing emotion. I still can't smile at joke or even cry at Elisha's funeral, but it's definitely there… something is changing.

Unlike before, as a person now I am capable of small range of emotion, small as it is but someday… someday I will be whole again.

Elisha's room was… clean. Once I'm confused whether to clean her room or not but decided to do so, in there it was disturbingly clean. Not exactly clean as new but it was just a plain bedroom with a few books about literature and an empty bag.

Her bank account was mostly arranged by Kazumi-san. Simply because it was too much work for me to do so and the amount of money in her account was… too much zero in there. But at least with that amount of money, I can safely continue my school and truthfully said I could buy a house with that much.

The ownership of the house was officially handed down to me effectively making this house Hyoudou Resident. Of course the one that handled paperwork was Kazumi-san and for the gift, I allowed her to take some of the money from the bank.

In the end both of us went through the process peacefully, as I was still needed for my signature. The bank account will be transferred to me once I reach the age allowed to. So it was official in the paper that Kazumi-san is my guardian for now.

Either that or going to orphanage.

I put down my bag that I've been holding the entire time and settled down on one of the cushion. "You're going to sleep here?"

"No, you know we're not a kid anymore. It's improper for a boy and girl to sleep together under the same roof." She said while closing the book she was reading. "Even though we're childhood friend."

"Yep." I added intending to tease her. "Even though in the past, you used to be cling to me when we're sleeping together."

Her face went a shade of red as she stuttered. "I-It's not like I'm afraid of ghost or something!"

I chuckled at her… what's it called again? Ah yeah Tsundere.

The fact that I didn't have anyone to talk to for those lonely days after Elisha's died put me into quite a deep trouble, seeing that Kazumi-san suggested for me to live together with their family but I refused. From then on I have to live alone but of course that didn't mean that I'm alone the entire time.

I still playing with Murayama from time to time and Kazumi-san still helped and teach me to do house chore, hence the reason why I was skilled at house chore.

I can understand the source of her embarrassment but it was painfully obvious that I won't do anything indecent. Even if there's a voluptuous woman next to me while I was sleeping, the most I would do is just embarrassed… maybe? I don't really know what my exact reaction will be considering that the video that I watched in Motohama's home didn't even really get me excited.

Safe to say, my libido is next to none, as a man I won't deny that it still existed although small.

"So you're staying for dinner?"

"Well… you know I can't cook and all so..." She apologizes while looking elsewhere to avoid my face. "Actually it's also a good chance for us to study together."

"After dinner?" I asked her who trying to reach for the remote and saw her faintly nodded. Alright dinner it is.

I went to my room to change from my school clothes to my casual one. My room doesn't really change even after I went through puberty, unlike my two perverted friends who sticking naked girl poster on the wall or hiding perverted magazine, my room is… for the lack of better wording just plain.

Not minding the state of my room, I quickly meet Murayama again in the living room. She has already turned on the TV and sitting gracefully while eating the rice cracker, sighing through my nose, I spared a glance at where the clock glued on the wall.

"It's already this late?" I muttered loud enough for the female in the room to hear.

"Why do you sound surprised?" She asked me. "It's your own fault that you came home late."

"I didn't think that it will lead to this, if I know sooner maybe I wouldn't done that."

"What are you doing anyway?"

"Matsuda and Motohama."

At my answer, Murayama let out 'ooh~' in understanding though it seems that she did not care about those two. Good thing that I didn't mention what I'm doing with those two, if she happen to know about it… I don't know if it was those two who were in danger or me.

"Why did you associate yourselves with those two perverts anyway?" Murayama asked me in are-you-stupid look. "There's nothing good that will comes out when you hanging out with them." She said which is sadly quite true.

"Don't just look at one side." I said matter of fact tone. "I've said it to you before didn't I? Out of the students in the school, they have rare natures among the people I try to befriend with."

"You always said that." She said. "But they are bad influences for you."

"Not really, one of their goods is that no matter how perverted they are they're always honest. They're not bothering to hide the truth and just said how they feel out loud." I said supporting my two friends. "Unlike other students in my class, I'm not saying that they're lying but sometimes I can see that when they're not enjoying my company, they're lying to keep the face of 'good guy'."

I paused to see the look on Murayama's face before continuing. "And despite their bad reputation, they're also makes other looks good."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Murayama asked me, I was still in thought trying to explain it to her.

"They make other looks good because they always took the blame." I answered her while maintaining my bland face. "When people are talking behind their back, people always think "They deserve it" or "It's their fault". I can't blame them for thinking like that but Murayama do you know this?

"That they never once talk bad about others? Because they already have the worst reputation in the school, they didn't even think about refuting people who talk about that. Although they're perverted, they're good-natured and honestly they will make for some good friends if you don't get caught in with their hobby."

One of the time I'm grateful that I have my ability is when choosing friends. Seeing through their lies and revealing their flaw or good is just one of the boons of having this ability. There's other thing that I can take advantage of with this ability such as sensing presence or even better having the ability of fast learning but that's another story…

And since the chance of me becoming a pervert was next to none, I didn't need to worry about their perversion.

On my freshmen year I was pretty popular, regarded as handsome or kind by other students but ever since I become friends with Perverted Duo, my reputation took turn to worse.

Not that I mind it. It's better to build up reputation from none than by first impression, currently my reputation as "Helper" was already spreading like a wildfire.

But I think it's better to have friends like them instead of others. When I went to make friends with other male, it's obvious that they're faking their attitude to get closer to me. Meanwhile Matsuda and Motohama will just get to the point and inviting me with porn while at the same time treated me like their long-time friend.

I seek honest relationship not some cheap fake one.

Murayama look downcast, not letting me seeing what face she make right now. "I see, it seems like I was too hard on them huh?"

"Not really, they deserve it the least. They already know the risk of peeping girls in our school and yet they still do it, in fact it's pretty good lesson for them."

Murayama let out a small chuckle from hearing my word. "Well good thing that they don't peeping on us again. Oh right, don't let me hinder you from making dinner." She said while shooing me away to the kitchen.

What I said was true. I didn't try to sugar-coating my word about my two perverted friends. They even tried to help me seriously when I needed them, even going so far as skipping two periods to help me. Because they're already regarded as the worst, they didn't mind how other seen them, because they didn't have good reputation to upheld.

Truly if they're not so perverted, I would have seen them in better light.

 **-0-**

The day after the teacher announced the mid-term exam, I went to Kuoh Academy once more.

It's morning and there should be no one in this school except the teacher or maybe students who have something to do in school. It was the long-awaited day off before the exam after all.

I came here to find out the source of my bad feeling and so far I didn't feel any dread that ran through me yesterday. Only some teachers who went in and out of the school combined with few normal-looking female students.

Huh look like I might be wrong sometime.

Just when I was going to turn back to proceed my day like usual.

The dread feeling came over again.

They calmly walk to the school gracefully as if owning the whole school, owning the whole life on the school.

A group of four girls. Four girls that is the source of where my dread came from, to seen them personally together accompanied by a smile on their face is scary.

As a human, it should be our instinct to fear the unknown, to fear death specifically. In my mind I didn't fear them but maybe it's an instinctual human nature to preserve their survival.

A young – I assume – Japanese girl with a curvaceous figure and long black hair that tied up in a ponytail. I'm just assuming that she's of Japanese origin because of the way she hold herself look like Yamato Nadeshiko. She had violet eyes that glinting with amusement and a smile on her face that is giving me a shudder every time I see it.

Beside her was another young tall girl with crimson shade of hair, – that reminded me too much of blood – she had a curved figure much like the Japanese girl beside her and azure-blue eyes. Assumption that she's a foreigner comes from her crimson hair and eyes color of course.

Another one who's as tall as the one mentioned above, the one that differentiate her between the other girls was her petite figure along with violet eyes. She has black hair that styled in bob-cut and purple spectacles adorned her face. Out of the group, she seems to be most serious.

And the one that's silent the entire time, this one as tall as the crimson-haired girl and was as curvaceous as she is. She has long dark hair cascading down until her waist and light yellow eyes covered by blue rimmed glasses.

All in all they're just normal group of girls albeit the sheer beauty that they radiated was different from normal. Talking and chattering against each other while frequently smiling at their own talk.

Pretty much, the word that I can describe this is "Normal".

All the more reason why they're dangerous.

Then I focused my eyesight at the one that's only let out few words, leaning her head closer to the one shorter than her and whispering to her ear while keeping her eyes at me.

Uh oh they didn't notice me right?

I quickly turned back on my heel preparing to run right away, no matter how strange its look like. But again it seems like fate wanted me to do something different.

"Do you have any business in our school?"

Slowly spinning my head to meet the source of the voice, I see the one that asked me before was the one that has short black hair. She's the one that has most serious face out from the group and if her attitude was any indication, I don't want to deal this kind of thing with genius like her.

"A-ah no, I just get the news that this school will become co-ed for the next year." I said trying to keep my cool façade despite what's going on in my head right now, trying to escape this sort of situation can only be possible to talk my way out my mind tell me. "I'm a third year myself so I just curious what kind of school this is."

"Is that so?" She said still keeping her stare at me, watching every inch of my body should I make any funny move. She adjusted her glasses and continued. "Do you want intent to enter this school after you graduate?"

"If I manage to that is."

"Oh don't worry about money. I'm sure that we can sort it out if your grade is good."

"Right, I'll try." I said to her while managing to spare a glance at the crimson-haired girl behind her. Is she smiling? "If I may ask, what are you doing in school now?"

"A polite one, I see." She said while adjusting her glasses and her lips quirked up to smile. "It's refreshing to see student like you."

"Thank you, I get that a lot."

"Now I believe that you want to know why we're here." She paused to see my reply and I nodded for her to continue. "It's for an urgent matter for you see, both of us are part of student council. My name is Souna Shitori, first year and student council member." She said while motioning for the taller girl to stand closer.

"Shinra Tsubaki." The now-named Shinra-senpai said while bowing her head slightly.

"Ah right, Hyoudou Issei, pleasure to meet you." I introduced myself and followed the same motion. Lifting my head up, I asked indirectly at the two girls behind her. "And this two is?"

"My name is Rias Gremory." The crimson-haired girl says to introduce herself while the pony-tailed girl is still smiling like before. "And this is Himejima Akeno."

"Nice to meet you Hyoudou-kun." The pony-tailed girl said smiling as she placed one hand on her cheek while using the others to support her 'assets'. "I hope that we can meet again when you've enrolled into Kuoh."

"Likewise, thanks for the invitation."

"We got some things to deal for our club." Then the crimson-haired girl crossed her arms under her chest. "We're from Occult Research Club."

Souna Shitori, Shira Tsubaki, Rias Gremory, and Himejima Akeno.

Gremory was definitely a foreign name so I can safely say that she's foreigner while Himejima-senpai and Shinra-senpai is Japanese. It was Shitori that I can't decide her origin, true that her name is of Japanese origin but still something seems off.

Occult Research Club was the one that I'm curious about the most. They're not lying, I cannot find any shred of lies in their word and that's coming from someone who had the ability to detect lies. I'll find out later maybe after the mid-term ended or if I don't, I can enter this school when it's time to do so.

Either way, I must get out of here before I attracted more attention than I needed to.

"I'm sorry to have taken your time." My face was bland right now so I added smile to my face. "Have a nice day." I said which the girls seem to haves taken it well.

I give them a quick bow to show my gratitude and quickly leave the entrance gate. They didn't seem to be in hurry and instead resuming their chat from before in the place where I left them.

I look back at their disappearing form. They noticed me looking at them and the crimson-haired girl waved her hand at me, I replied back with the same motion. It's faint and maybe it's just my eyes seeing a wrong thing from far away but I see the crimson-haired girl, Rias Gremory, is smiling when she see my back.

 **-0-**

Exam is… normal, as normal as it can of course.

There are some students who's cheating, that I didn't bother to report or the delinquents who threaten their teacher to give them answer. Some who have studied before is doing their own with little to no difficult, even for someone who didn't study a lot like me can answer most of it.

I didn't have to see Motohama to confirm how he's doing. He's after all, one of the smartest students in our school. If not for his perverted reputations I bet he already have a girlfriend now. Matsuda is doing well it seems, he seems stuck on one problem after another but he's doing well for most of the exams.

I only care about reaching the passing grade, even though if I studied more than usual, maybe I can score high.

But of course it was just idea, the reality won't go as what I planned.

Last day of exam, as usual I was already prepared and for exam only Matsuda and Motohama didn't gathering around my desk to talk about perverted things.

The teacher comes into our class with the exam in his hand. Huh? He didn't seem to be too happy about the exam or is it something else?

"Before we start the exam," The teacher said when everyone was already in their respective seat waiting for the teacher. "We just got the news from the police that one of the students in this school has died."

At the teacher's word, everyone begin to muttering among themselves, some managed to stay calm, some started to looks panic, and some didn't even care about the news.

"Kato Kaizuki from class 3-C just died recently this morning along with his whole family." The teacher said that and the panic started to take over most of the students in this class.

Kaizuki? That bratty arrogant kid? Died? I give a quick pray that he will rest in peace along with his family. Sure he's kind of cold to other and acted like he own the whole school, well actually he acted like he owned everything. But I can't bring myself to hate him, no, let's forget about his attitude and focused on his good point.

His ability which makes people listen to his order is the most obvious thing that come to mind, the other redeeming qualities from him is maybe his good grade, and I don't know if that grades come from cheating or pure work.

Focusing to search about other people good point or flaws is always something that I'm good at.

But doing so just brought a question to my mind.

Who killed him?

Of course I won't ask that to the teacher. It's unthinkable to do so just because I'm curious and along with how it's insensitive for me to do it, there's also one of his delinquent group who's in this class and who know what they will do to me if I happen to ask about it.

The teacher continued to talk about Kaizuki and how it made them cry that he can't join us again on this school. I ignored his rambling and focused my thought about what did the killer does that his whole family needed to be killed?

The Killer that's in our area before killed the victim in the road or public area, leaving them die on pool of their own blood, but the Killer never does any murder who involves target more than one. It's always one, the Killer that's mentioned last week was always targeting one victims, it's strange for him/her to kill the whole family.

The teacher continued the speech and saying something about holding proper funeral after the school, I didn't think I will make it to his funeral along with his family, I need some time alone. Precisely sleep.

Exam continued like usual but unlike before, my mind strayed off to the killer. I started to relate my dread feeling that I got from those group of girls in Kuoh and the one who killed Kaizuki. Nah, no way… that will happen… right?

No, wait. It's still possible for them to do it, although they're not lying about their identities, still doesn't change about how I feel dread from them. I rarely make a baseless assumption partly because I always relied on information and fact, but the way it put my instinct on edge is also something that I have to take into consideration.

And they reek of blood, not in biological sense but instinct. Sometime I get this feeling from the people who already killed someone. Sadly I didn't focused my sense to search what did they kill, it could be animal or human actually.

In the end I didn't put too much effort into doing the exam and I can already predict what score I will get, meh probably average one.

After the exam ended, Matsuda let out a breath filled with his frustration that have been pent up during these whole week while at the same time slouched back on his own seat. His face washed over with relief as he closed his eyes.

Motohama was not like Matsuda and showed an entirely different reaction after the exam. He quickly activated his phone and his whole focus was directed at the phone while at the same time memorizing what's in it. Which I quickly found out was porn. It seems like he want to refresh his brain with something pleasant so he does this every time he want to vent up his frustration.

Matsuda after found out what Motohama was doing, quickly joined of course. While me who still in trance of the week of exam was staring off at the empty corner of the classroom. I snapped out of my deep thought when I realize what I'm doing.

Trying to figures out the whole murderer thing is probably one of the most tiring activities I've been doing lately.

"Matsuda, Motohama." I called out to two of them who still busy refreshing their brain with porn. "I don't feel really well so I'm going home."

"Wait." Motohama said tapping the stop button on his phone. "You said that you will accompany us to arcade after the exam right?"

"I've a bit headache after hearing the news." I said trying to reasoning my way out. "Tomorrow maybe but don't play too long, I still have to do something tomorrow."

It's not that I really get a head-ache but just the sheer amount of strangeness going on lately just put me into some sort of situation where I don't have a choice but to sleep. I could find out what's going on Kuoh Academy that telling me danger but after hearing the news, I don't want to risk another murder.

"Oh, alright then, rest well."

"Yeah, don't stay up too late."

I went straight home not bothering to walk leisurely despite the normally short distance, god why did thing have to be so confusin-

!

What… the fuck…

I just need to pass the bridge to reach the other side and continued walking… to return home… it's just a normal bridge…

Something, something is there. My instinct telling me that I shouldn't be here, shouldn't take this way. Return, go back, I must do it lest I will face something that I don't wanted, but I don't want to take the long way so I muster up my courage and walked calmly through the bridge.

One second. There's nothing there.

Two second. Also nothing.

Three second. A girl is already standing in front of me despite a second ago there should be nothing in there.

The dread feeling from yesterday come back to me again as my brain comprehended the situation in matter of second and the only single conclusion that I got is…

Run.

My mind went blank for a second before it re-booting itself to acknowledge the impossible situation before me.

If I was shocked or surprised my face won't allow me to express it. The girl has black-hair and purple eyes much like one of the girls from Kuoh Academy that I encountered before, she wore a school uniform that I didn't recognized but that's not what I care about now.

"Y-You're Hyoudou Issei-kun right?"

The girl asked me complete with a shade of red in her face as she faced me. She's beautiful, cute, and sexy but it was clear from her word alone, she's clearly faking her stutter.

Bloodlust.

I can sense feeling or emotion so it's actually pretty easy to decided what kind of emotion that she's making right now.

She wanted to kill me.

My brain can't process down the word that she said after that, but I digress, forcing my ears to its utmost capability, I was forced to hear her sugarcoating word.

"Please go out with me!" She said fighting down a blush from showing on her face, which obviously was faked considering the amount of increasing bloodlust when she said it.

She's cute. Anyone who's in my situation right now would certainly think like that. And I'm sure that anyone smart enough would accept his confession.

I'm not one of those peoples.

I declined her as polite as possible, but not before activating my instinct should she make any funny moves. "I-I'm sorry." I apologized to her eyes glancing toward what kind of expression will she makes. "But I already set my eyes on someone else."

There.

Something changed the entire atmosphere around me.

Her exterior appearance did not change but I can sense it, her small bloodlust spiked into something that I can sense without having any kind of skills and yet she was forced to hide it. I'm sure that it would make any normal human wanted to vomit but sadly I'm not that normal human.

How? How can she? To hide such an insane amount of bloodlust in that petite body while at the same time keeping the façade of normal middle-school girl? It's… it's…

Insane.

I must run away from her, the girl didn't move an inch from her spot after I decline her. Fortunately it seemed that she doesn't want to get caught killing me out in the public. I cautiously walked away from her and take another road far from home as long as I didn't have to meet this girl.

I looked back at her who still standing silent on the bridge. She did not follow me, heck she did not even moving from the bridge. And yet, even though she already disappeared, even though I can't sense her presence or bloodlust again…

Why do I feel like someone is following me?

Eh, probably an animal or cat, the presence strangely feels very much like a cat so it's safe to say that I was followed by a cat. If it's a cat then I can be relieved that I don't notice it, after all a cat is small… right? I stopped for a moment looking around me, looking for the cat presence but did not see anything funny.

Letting out a sigh I resumed my track.

But really why did a cat want to follow me?

 **-0-**

The day after I meet that girl who asked me out, which is today was uneventful like usual.

Except the fact that currently Motohama was rambling about magic is real. Then yeah, pretty much today is normal.

"I tell you that magic is real Ise!" Motohama shouted that I swear my eardrum was going to burst off at the sheer ridiculousness of his story.

"Motohama this doesn't like you at all." I said calming down my friend and ignoring his outburst earlier. "Even though you're a pervert, I know that you're not the type to believe something like this so why the sudden change?"

"Yeah dude, what you're talking about is something that has been going on the internet ever since it first created until now."

"Hmph." Motohama didn't seem to back down and continued. "You won't understand if you haven't seen the real deal." Then he returned back to his own seat obviously discontent with our reaction.

I sighed after dealing with him, returning my gaze to Matsuda. I found that he has returned to his own seat while looking out of the window. Man, the break will be over soon and my lunchbox is already emptied out by two of them and me.

Wrapping up the box, I check the phone for my curiosity alone. Matsuda yesterday has suggested me that if I'm curious about the surname of people, I could search it in Google. I know it seemed absurd but if Google is like a library then there's no harm in trying.

Fifteen minutes later, I came back with small info. Souna Shitori and Tsubaki Shinra is the common name for Japanese people. Meanwhile Himejima is the name of someone renowned in this town, precisely the one who owned the shrine in the border of the town, the last monk who stayed in there has died so there should be no one.

So that's why I never heard of Himejima name, although maybe in the past it was famous for its shrine, today it's no longer the same.

Which leaves me to the last, Rias Gremory.

…

Huh? Gremory name is in Wikipedia?

In demonology, Gremory is a strong duke of hell that governs twenty-six legions of demons. He tells all things past, present and future, about hidden treasures, and procures the love of women, young and old, but especially maidens.

He is depicted as appearing in the form of a **beautiful woman**.

The dread feeling came over me again after I read the article. It couldn't be right? I mean, what kind of people would name its family after a demon?

…Well actually maybe there's some but still, no, no, it couldn't be true. It's just a coincidence, Rias Gremory is not a demon, she just a normal girl. I kept telling myself that over and over, magic is not real and so is demon.

No, I can't really conclude that. The actual remain of what Age of God does to us still remained, artifact that's believed to be magical can be found on museum and there's a lot of legend depicted that magic is actually real.

My belief was that magic actually existed and real but after the Age of God ended? Not so much.

Which means that magic didn't exist now.

That.

Is what I believe until now and I won't change it until I seen the proof that magic still exist. Actually I've seen some pretty unbelievable thing when Elisha still alive, like how my broken bones could be healed in short amount of time without surgery or how the shed in my house is emanating scary presence.

But after Elisha's died, the amount of the strange things in my life has reduced.

And then it's come back to lead me into this strange chain of events.

Come to think of it… Motohama mentioned that he seen magic-related thing yesterday night.

He summoned a pretty girl using a magic circle. Yeah seems like a pervert otaku wet dream scenario, I mean summoning beast or animal is okay and all but summoning a girl to grant your wish? Even someone like me who tried to see everything in believable way, found something like that is… impossible.

But he's the only clue right now and the way his outburst earlier related to magic is something unusual. Just as I made making my way to his seat, the bell that signaled the end break chimed, the teacher entered our class.

 **-0-**

After school.

"Motohama."

"What is it Ise?" He replied while preparing his things before returning home.

"Earlier you said that you summoned someone using a magic circle…" I said pausing while sparing a glance to see his reaction, thankfully he did not seems to be angry. "Can you give me an example? The one that you used yesterday?"

He chuckled before unzipped his bag and took out a flyer. "This." He said while giving me one of them. "Someone sent it to me yesterday night and I used it immediately to summon someone." He said while waving the flyer in his hand. "Out of it came a sexy girl wearing a Kuoh Academy uniform."

What the fuck?

"Hey, can you tell me the detail of that girl you summoned?" I asked feeling ill remembering my theories. "Not that I don't believe you but I just want to know… for research purpose."

"Hmm, it looks like you've awakened your libido Hyoudou Issei." He said gleefully while adjusting his glasses. "Alright then, she's buxom girl with hourglass figure." He said obviously with the most noticeable thing in men eyes. "Black hair, ponytail, purples eyes and somehow she wears Kuoh Academy uniform, weird right?"

No. Freaking. Way.

"Name? Did she tell her name?"

He put his hand under his chin as if thinking, no way, no way, no way. Please let it be wrong….

"Akeno, Himejima Akeno."

 **-0-**

Currently I was in the park enjoying the silence created by lack of people in it.

I was sitting on the bench while crossing my leg, staring at the fountain boringly. If Irina was still in this town who know maybe she wanted to swim in this fountain, the very thought that Irina swimming in the fountain is such a funny thought that I let out a chuckle.

My hand found its way to my breast pocket and took out the flyer with complex-written magic circle along with the word "We will grant your wish.". This seems really impossible to comprehend, I mean my brain is something like supercomputer and yet it can't understand its mechanism.

If we're going along by the rule of "Magic didn't exist" that is, if by any chance that magic or supernatural did indeed exist until now and currently roaming around this town then the strange chain of events that I experienced was in the realm of possibility.

Putting back the flyer this time on the bag so that it did not fly off when I run. I closed my eyes thinking about the events that had been going on these past two weeks, sighing through my nose I stood up and opened my eyes to discover that I was in another place entirely.

No, it's not another place. It's still in the park but my sense was tingling, telling me that I shouldn't be here. The sky is… in another color that I can't exactly comprehend, the mix of dark paint color that's constantly moving, if I was a normal people, I would either vomit at the constantly moving dome or freak out at the sudden change of place.

"Ehe."

A soft laughing sound, almost child-like came from behind me, which sent a shiver down my spine in my current situation.

Turning my head with the quickest reaction time possible for my body, I see myself dying, falling to the asphalt with red-strange projectile stuck inside my stomach, blood leaking from my mouth as I fall while looking at my assailant.

I jumped back.

True to my instinct, the red projectile struck to where I should have been a moment ago. What was I seeing back there? I see "myself" die? To this thing?

The red projectile dissipated into nothingness and what left in there was a small crater with the exact diameter of the projectile a moment ago. Just from that proof, my brain quickly registered the threat of that projectile.

Somehow, just somehow I avoided death in blink of a second.

That image… that image from before was "myself" if I didn't jumped back.

And again by pure chance of luck I could see the future to avoid it.

"Hee…." The little-girl voiced her curiosity while cutely tilted her head. "So you dodged that… then," She lifted her hand, from her palm, glow a strange red light which quickly shaped into a spear. "How about a second one?"

Then she take off, literally, and from her back sprouted a wings.

A pair of black feathered wing much like the one that crow has. The wing flapping to live and brought the little girl to sky while she aiming the projectile.

Only one word could describe the situation right now.

Fuck.

 **-0-**

My leg feels heavy.

It's like strapping lead weights to my body and the main function of the limbs which is to keep my body standing straight was taken off. My breath hitched as another projectile flying on its way to my leg, I forcefully stopped myself when I see another "image" of me dying in front of me.

The future image is still something that I can't understand but I will take whatever I had to escape this situation.

"Why won't you die!?" The little girl behind me was obviously annoyed or angry beyond belief at someone who seemed to dodge everything she throws at. She created another red spear in her hand while I heightened my sense and instinct at the same time, searching for any means of escape or weakness.

Escape was impossible, whatever it is that changed the color of the sky and the environment that put my instinct on edge is also blocking my way out of this damned park.

Weakness? If she did not fly then yeah I can punch my way out provided I can avoid her spear. Or worse, what if she can use the spear for close-range attack? I'll die regardless if that happen to be true.

My thought interrupted by my sense telling me where to avoid and an unknown knowledge providing what to do. I dashed to the front dodging yet another projectile which leaves a not-so-deep small crater on the stony road.

Yep I'll still die if I block it.

Anything to use as weapon? No.

Means of escape? Sealed.

What to do in this situation? Run.

My instinct took control of me before I can decide it myself, my brain already thought of two-no three way of prolonging my life. Every second, my brain produced another way of plan and eliminated the one that has the highest chance of failing.

I can feel my leg started to give up on me and my breath was interrupted as yet another red projectile is already on its way to me. Dodge to the left, rolling, dash, jump bac- goddammit leg!

Shifting my body as much as I can, the spear found its way to my left shoulder, to where my stomach should have been a second ago. It's hurt, but I didn't scream, no my brain, my mind, refused to do something useless that's so taxing.

The spear disappeared after making a small hole at my left shoulder, blood spurted out from the hole and I gritted my teeth at the pain. I crouched down to lure her and when I see her closing on me without spear on her hand, I internally smirked.

"Finally!" The little girl said flapping down and standing on the same ground as me, "I thought I would do this all day." while creating two spears ready to be shot at me.

Then the image comes again, this time both of my legs were pierced by the two spears and before the image can finish, I already rolled back to avoid the two spears.

Now.

I denied the legs urge to rest, and sprinted toward the black winged assailant and closing the distance between us in less than a second. There's only one chance, the exact moment that she think I'm helpless and harmless, the moment that she's standing on the same ground as me, the moment that she's in the range of my strike.

I balled my hand to form a fist and punch her in the face, the part that my instinct is telling me the "best" place to strike at.

I put more strength than it normally needed to make a bruise on normal people face and she did not even have a time to react or to create another spear before her brain registered what is already happened. By some insane amount of will, she didn't falls yet and makes another spear before I can back off and stabbed my right leg with it.

She falls to the hard stone road and quickly got up again despite the amount of force that my punch has packed. The spear in my leg became smaller and smaller until it dissipates into nothingness, leaving nothing but a hole in my limb.

I grimaced in pain, harder than normal human huh? Well I'm fucked, I could win if I have weapon or I could somehow weaken her but I don't have the luxury to have that right?

I could.

A small part of me telling me that I could do it, I could weaken her. Meanwhile the other part of me telling me to slash her apart with the weapon that I already have, like a sword.

I fall.

Huh? Oh really? Of all the things you could've done, you choose to fall in a time like this? Come on my body, move it! I can't die in a place like this much less when I haven't yet achieved my dream! And…

That girl, I can't possibly let that white-haired girl alone right?

"You…" The little girl said while rubbing the spot where my punch has left its mark on her face. "I don't care about your sacred gear anymore," Then from her hand she created another similar shaped spear only this time it was bigger. "Die!"

My brain goes overdrive, formulating a plan to escape the bigger and faster spear than the one before. The plans were ready to be worked with and all that needed is my body… yes, only that my body won't listen to me.

The red spear struck true to my stomach, making a hole on where my stomach should've been. Magically the hole which is my stomach didn't even vomit out the content inside it. My brain won't register the pain until the next 5 seconds, I still have my chance? No, all chance is lose. Wound was too deep to be healed, unknown enemy, no weapons or means of escape.

Almost half of my body was wounded, incapable of moving.

Zero chance to win or retreat, it's my loss from the start.

"Don't blame me for your death…" the little girl said. "I don't have any choice in here, either I killed you or I will be kicked out of Grigori."

Before I closed my eyes, I remembered a dream where I've gone through something similar like this. I was on top of the mountain of corpses of knights, standing alone without any sign of life, indicating the incoming destruction. One thing that let me know that this was a dream was a sign of tears on my cheeks, it was impossible so it's a dream.

Only that what I'm searching is not a dream like that.

What I seek is something more beautiful, one that will allow all of us to become happy in this peaceful world, the land of peace that only someone who tried to search relentlessly was allowed to.

Seeking the impossibility in midst of destruction.

An Ever-distant Utopia.

My eyelids became heavier as I realized that it's a natural thing when it was in verge of dying.

A chant.

Memories assaulting me, telling me to use it before I left the plane of existence.

"I…"

With my blurry eyesight, I could see that my assailant turned her back on me and didn't notice that I was already standing despite the wound, despite the relentless pain that told me to stop, to end this needless pain.

"I who will awaken…"

I murmur the chant in my head without realizing it. I raise my head to look at my enemy while trying to stand up straight resisting the pain. Despite the low voice of my murmuring, the supernatural seemed to have enhanced hearing to hear what I've said and quickly turned to face me with surprised look on her face.

And I could feel myself getting stronger as I draw in an unknown source of power. The source seems to come from my back and the amount of power that I got surpassing the amount that I can hold. Overload mode, I didn't have enough time, I must finish it as soon as I can.

"No way! The boundary field is broken!?" She said while looking up at the sky that suddenly turned into normal color again. "I-Impossible… **[Divine Dividing]**? A Longinus Sacred Gear user is here in this town!?"

She seems surprised by something but I didn't care about that, no it's better that I have the element of surprise against her. I could feel the sudden strength flowing into me after I said those words. It's like a magic chant to strengthen myself, I feel like I can do anything with what I have now.

I could.

I could do it.

All I need is my body to keep up with what my mind is telling me.

I didn't check whether my body is alright or not, as long as I could do it with what's left of me then it fine. Something, something was on my back, no more like it's inside of me, telling me to use it just like that chant. It's sprouting from inside, much like a pair of wing.

I absorbed knowledge from unknown source to how to use what's in my back. Technique, experience, knowledge, instinct, weapon, I have all of them.

My opponent is in front of me, taking off from the ground flapping her wings to maintain her stability to fly. Before I would think that being able to fly is cheating but now I can do that too, I just need to control it with my thought unlike how real bird fly.

Flying without flapping my wing, the wing on my back was a simple decoration, something that gives me ability to fly. It allowed me to move my body with nothing but thought and freed it from the bind of earth. Without any spare moment to think about can I do it, I moved my body using my mind instead of feet like normal.

My opponent was in process of creating another spear projectile. Her face was terrified of me or whatever I had done, she seems confused whether to throw the projectile to me or not. That's good, she won't know that it will cause her fall because she grant me times to get used to this form.

A second later my feet didn't touch the ground.

It was a foreign experience, to hovering in the air, millimeter off the ground. Not enough, this speed wouldn't even let met close to my opponent. I've seen how fast she is and I can't allow the same mistake of letting her out of my striking range.

I moved.

Not with my new ability of flying but with my feet. Dodging the red projectile thrown by the little girl who was terrified of me and possibly my wings, the chant that I muttered before was providing me with the knowledge of the ability my wing has.

And I've to say that I'm impressed.

Moving my body slightly to avoid another spear, I realized that I moved better than before, even better than before I was wounded. Weird as it was, I didn't have time to think about how I can do this kind of thing without risking the chance of dying to her spear.

Overload. A correct term for my current situation right now, I draw in incredible amount of power surpassing the amount that I can hold myself. I should scream in pain or watching the sight of my muscle torn because of the amount of power that I hold right now.

And yet I didn't, anything is it that allowed me to regenerate from my wound also keeping me from dying because of the internal wound. Sadly I can still feel the pain but I can endure it, for now at least.

Despite how amazing the ability this wing has, I can't use it without touching my opponent first. If only this wing activated before I punched the little girl then maybe I have won this battle a moment ago. And provided even if I can touch my opponent, who said that she can't attack me before I activated it?

Precisely why I need weapon.

I didn't have to search it, it's already there. It's already in my soul, all I need is to call it, call that holy sword's name. The most strongest Holy Sword ever existed, said to be unrivalled in legend and the symbol of a certain legendary king.

An image appear in my mind, it was a sword that has a grip long enough that appears as a two-handed sword with a round pommel at the end, a huge cross-like shaped guard and a long blade with gold colored edge.

"Excalibur."

I called the holy sword.

Feeling the familiar weight in my hand, I… what? The holy sword that I called for… it's different than the one in my memories? And yet I get entirely different memories from this sword? The ability of the sword is also different, the one that I was sure that I once wielded was… ruling dimension right?

Instead in my hand was a golden sword.

Its length and width is big enough to make it look like a greatsword but I know better that this sword can be held by one-hand. The strength to wield such a sword with one-hand must've reach something non-humanly as if to make the sword more unbelievable is the fact that the sword is sealing something greater than its appearance.

This was **Excalibur: Sword of Promised Victory**.

I know it already and yet… why did I feels like the sword was different than it normally was?

My precognition-like instinct warned me of another attack, clicking my tongue, I lifted the golden sword ignoring the fact that I should not be able to lift the sword of such a size with one hand and deflect the attack.

No, deflect is not quite a correct word. It disappeared the moment it touched the edge of the golden sword, as if predator eating its prey. The golden sword is stronger than the spear by insane amount. Probably it was too strong that it dissipates when it makes contact.

"No, no, no. Two sacred gears!? And one of them is Longinus!" The little girl said frightened at the sheer amount of power I radiated thanks to the light wing plus the holy sword in my hand, but I still can't beat her even though I have the advantage here, I can't fly that fast.

I've to improve while fighting, flying while battling. Any normal human think it may seems difficult but as long as you can fly, then it's different matter, avoiding attack in the air and planning.

I can do it.

Controlling my ability to fly, I took off from the ground at slow pace. My opponent didn't seem to be happy that I have the means of harming her, she created another spear. It seems more potent, stronger than the big one before, holding the spear with both of her hands, she made a stance.

And instead of throwing it like usual, she charged, intending to stab me who still learning to fly.

Underestimating someone and wanting to beat your opponent without cooked-up plan is the same as throwing your life away.

Accelerating the rate of my flight in the air, the little girl was surprised at my sudden change of speed but nonetheless kept charging with her spear.

It happened in less than second.

Gripping the sword tight with both of my hands, I slashed the red spear – disappearing upon touching the sword – leaving my opponent weaponless. Still in trance that her weapon destroyed so easily, she didn't realize my hand has formed a fist and the next thing she know was pain coming from her abdomen due to my punch.

 **[Divide]**

The wing of light in my back screamed as I felt strength flowing from the little girl to me. The little girl didn't seem to have the same hardness that she used when I punch her the first time. Adjusting the amount of power I got, I didn't waste any time to punch her in her face once again.

* **Crack** *

The weakened girl didn't seem to react at all when my punch connected with her face and instead, an unnerving cracking sound was heard when my punch made contact with hers. No, it's not that she didn't react but she doesn't have enough time to comprehend what's happening in front of her.

Her current form didn't hold the same aura that she radiated from before when she chased me, she falls to the earth making a hard thud sound. She still alive, her nose was bleeding due to my punch and her energy was only drained by my wings, it would return sooner or later.

Controlling the movement of my flight, slowly I descended into the same ground that she falls.

She was defenseless. I could kill her right now.

She tried to kill me and I didn't have to do the same to her.

She mentioned Sacred Gear and Longinus, terms that I did not know about. Despite the unknown knowledge that I got, I only have the basic grasp of what my ability is, not what it is exactly.

An important source of information, I could keep her in my house, threatening her to tell me information that I needed.

But who know that if she wakes up again, I can't access the same power I had like now?

Killing her right now or carrying her to my home.

What should I do?

 **-0-**

 **I'm sorry if the chapter seemed like doesn't make much sense, I'm trying to rush things up here. I want to get some rest from writing so the best thing that I can do is to finish up earlier. Trying to change the summary so that it can attract more reader but I don't know what to write for summary.**

 **Also the irony is strong in this chapter.**

 **King Arthur, the wielder of Excalibur, served the welsh dragon Ddraig and yet Issei get Divine Dividing which contains Ddraig's archenemy Albion. This way I can make the conversation more interesting instead of going all buddy and partner like in Canon.**

 **I set it before Issei entered High-school so that he can decide whether he wants to be drop out or continue. Also because of that, Issei can prevent many things happen before canon. Killing Diodora, save Asia before she comes to Kuoh, prevent Excalibur from being stolen, etc.**

 **And I've a surprise for the faction that Issei going to join.**

 **Also this is technically my first time writing fighting scene, the first part wasn't really a fight since all Issei does is just running from Mittelt.**

 **Yeah if any of you doesn't know, Issei summoned his Heroic Spirit when he was in England. This is also one of the reasons he lost his memories when he's in England. Because this story was told from Issei's POV, he doesn't know anything about it yet.**

 **This is AU by the way.**

 **In the new DxD novel. it was proven to be possible for parallel world to be connected to DxDverse.**

 **But of course this is all because of the certain Dead Apostle Ancestor. Zelretch has messed up with this world more than he ever wanted. This AU is messed up all because of Zelretch.**

 **Also please fav, follow, and review!**


	6. The World We Live In

**I will go straight up answering reviewer question.**

 **\- I've read it somewhere that Arthur bears the red dragon that symbolizes the British people. I don't really know whether Arthur actually served Ddraig or just using his symbol. When I read the wiki, the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur, some people also said that Arthur was from Welsh, though I think that Albion the English dragon also suit him well.**

 **\- Issei has the Proto-Excalibur, yes the EX-ranked one. Before he called Proto-Excalibur, instead of getting the image of it, he got the image of DxD Caliburn, the one that's in the hand of Pendragon family. That's why he was confused.**

 **\- As for Divine Dividing don't suit Issei. Yeah, I can see that. He will change his appearance as the story goes, influence of having heroic spirit inside his body. And his fighting style will differ greatly from canon of course.**

 **\- Issei has Avalon which I admit was too OP. Instinct(A) from Arthur which almost on the level of true precognition(seeing future) that Issei use in previous chapter. Mana Burst(A) which can increase his performance like jet burst, and of course the most strongest skill Protagonist(EX)!**

 **But it's just that, it's not like he know that he has Avalon and will abuse it, it's not like he can Excali-blast everyone or even use Excalibur true name in the first place, it's not like he will achieve Balance Breaker right away.**

 **Prepare for the long monologue!**

… **. ….**

What should I do?

I've checked her pulse and I can confirm that she's still alive and she won't die even if I leave her here, though I don't know whether the anatomy of supernatural is the same as human. But when I punched her, it was no doubt that I hear the sound of bone cracking which came from her, I think it safe for now to say that her body is more closer to human than it seems.

Her face, her body, her hair, and her blood seem human-like, except the wing from her back of course. I wonder if I should rip off her wing in case that she can heal herself or when she will go after me again, but I don't know what sort of effect it will do if I just rip off her wings, probably the best to left it alone.

The choice is to kill her or not, my first battle with supernatural – and probably would be my first kill – didn't seem to go too well for me. Attacked by little girl with wings and awakening the power that you had in yourselves after all the time in the brink of death were not really an ideal way to discover the supernatural isn't it?

If I kill her, high chance is that I would anger the supernatural side. Anyone sane out there won't do that and I myself don't really have a chance to face off any of them in my current state. Am I ready to face the supernatural world? To make the enemy with supernatural because I killed one of them?

No… it's probably the best to take her as hostage and in the first place I don't want to be killer.

If I can then I won't kill her, unless it's necessary, do not kill her. I will bring her to my house and the problem after that… I will deal with it after I get to home. Yeah, let's go with that.

The problem is how.

I can't just carry a little girl back to my home without attracting unnecessary people. The little girl said that something-field was broken when I get the sudden surge of power and along with that the sky returned to normal.

Certainly that field was something that keeping people from going to this park? I did notice that the park was less populated but I was so caught up in this supernatural is real thing that I didn't notice that there's not a single life in this park except the two us. I noticed that the air around me was less sickening after the sky returned to normal, is it safe to assume that the field that she talked about it the one that block my escape and weakening me?

Whatever that little girl has set up to prevent my escape has been broken now. I will carry this little girl but if possible I don't want to use my flight ability to do it, who knows what the girls at Kuoh Academy will do to me if I happen to hurt one of them?

So the option is to carrying her normally but I must take the different road that is less likely for people to walk with. Alright, I probably should wait a bit more for the night to come, it's safer when walking on the road at night, less chance that people would found out.

But I should be fast. The supernatural in this town may have found out that one of them has been defeated. I don't want to deal with any more of them today. Best thing to do first is to gather more information, to prepare, in case that I don't have to face anything like this again unprepared.

While thinking like that, I dismissed the golden sword and the wings on my back, checking my back to ensure that the wing won't sprout out in public. The power that's flowing inside me through the whole time I faced my opponent faded at the same time and I could feel something build up inside me from my mouth.

I vomit out the blood and fall to my knees. I know what should be happening right now, I should have my muscles torn from inside or my veins exploding, all those pain that I should have experienced and yet I get off easy with only vomiting blood.

Of course, it's the backlash of using that power without regeneration.

"It… doesn't healing?" I muttered to myself in confusion. It's probably the fact that I suddenly get the power out of nowhere that confused me. Instead I should be glad that I haven't died yet after going through all that.

Whatever it is healing me before it doesn't heal me right now. Maybe it was the golden sword or the wings but I can't be too sure right now, I can feel myself losing consciousness but I shake my head to clear the confusion. Wiping the blood from my mouth, I tried to stand up again but I can't feel my leg, maybe it better this way.

The sun will be down soon and I don't want to waste the necessary time to prepare than standing here to rest. I feels light-headed probably because of the blood loss, the amount that I lose during that battle added with the one that I vomited just now is enough to make normal people lose consciousness or worse, dying.

No, it's not just that. I can't see what's going on inside me right now but come to think of it why was it so… silent? I can't even hear the bird chirping around this park anymore or the sound of my own footstep if that matter. More than that, the ringing sound in my head is becoming louder each time I walk, the numbness in my limb won't go away and I was surprised that I can even manage to stand.

My limb is heavy but I think it's because of the muscular pain, I ran away from the little girl even though my limb feels strapped on with lead. I guess it will be gone after I get some sleep though I think it also has something to do with how I use that power.

 **-0-**

Currently I was searching for something to restraint the little girl in my home at the shed like rope or something. I rarely gone into the shed mostly because it gives off feeling that I shouldn't be here, it was just now that I discovered this entire shed was full of weakly magical energy.

It was without a doubt that Elisha is the one who do this, but maybe after she died, the magic slowly deteriorating. It supposed to ward off normal human but even after she died, the magic is still active. Much of the things in here were mostly magical and somehow it created unnatural scent that's unhealthy for normal human but there's no other choice.

I found the rope and taken out some of the book, notes, and tomes that have magical scent. Lot of papers and notes, it seems to be research notes about magic. Various magic circles were written on the papers, most have the trail of magic in it while some were normal paper. Who know that spell book could be found in midst of all these?

Of course it's just a wistful thinking. I can't even sure that spell book like the one in game exist in real world as well but I hope, I can find some useful things in here. The shed seems to be the best place for me to experiment with magic, provided if I can find the way to use magic though after all it's better to prepare for something than just leaving the shed unused.

I went to the shed once more and breathe in some air inside, the air is not as sickening as before and it's safe to say that this shed can be used for normal human. It's a good thing that I don't give Kazumi-san the spare key to the shed and I could only imagine what she will do once she found out about the shed.

I sighed in relief and locked the shed. I bring back the things I found inside the shed into the main house as well as the rope of course, can't forget about my main purpose.

After some failed attempt, I finally completed my current task which is tying the little girl.

I don't know if normal rope is enough to restraint her but in case that fight will break out, I've already prepared. I can use **[Divide]** from afar without having to get sight of her. She's the last person I made physical contact to and with **[Divide]** I can weaken and kill her right away. I've already know the extent of my ability and I can activate my wings instantly so that will at least take care some of my problem.

I put her in one of the unused rooms and went to my room to change my clothes. Gah, it seem like I have to spend some money to buy new clothes, but maybe I can afford to do with only one uniform because I will graduate soon. It's still a little while before I graduate but I think I can borrow it from Motohama or Matsuda.

Come to think of it, the real reason why I encounter the supernatural was…

Kuoh Academy. Oh right, almost forgot about that.

Matsuda and Motohama had made their mind to enter that school and I've told one of the student council members in there to think about enrolling into Kuoh. What should I do? Now that I know supernatural and magic is real what should I do?

Living my life in peace?

No, I can't do that easily. If my life was that easy then yeah sure I will take that chance anytime.

But for Hyoudou Issei, it was impossible. Even though I will still live, all I do is just spending my entire lifetime in emptiness, doing meaningless things, never achieving happiness.

So it was clear what to do from here.

And who know what awaited me in the end of line.

Finishing my line of thought, I take off my holed up clothes and realized something off.

"There's really no wound huh."

I've known things would go like this but really, seeing it with my own eyes, seeing how I recovered from near-death situation is something that's out of place experience.

The red spear which supposed to stab my stomach, leaving me died in my own pool of blood… there's no traces of it anywhere. There are supposed to be holes on my left shoulder and stomach and instead what I find in there was the sign of blood and nothing else, it's perfectly normal healthy human body.

I don't need to use bandage right? I don't really want my wound to open up in the middle of school or in public, imagine how awkward or scary it was. Just on the safe side, I ended up bandaging my stomach in case that it will open up and put on my normal shirt.

I still have school tomorrow and Murayama or Kazumi-san will visit my house tomorrow as well, I was lucky that both of them didn't go to my house when I was gone. Slowly standing up I noticed that I'm a bit tired than usual, obviously from the fight earlier. Though I won't call it a fight, mostly at the end it's just one sided beating.

I who will awaken… huh?

I… probably shouldn't use it too much. In one of the comic that Matsuda showed me, the protagonist who goes to super mode like mine earlier usually achieve those by training or life and death situation. I suppose mine can be counted as life and death situation but I was regenerated instantly, is this counted as cheating?

Instead mine feels like lifting a seal, releasing something that's already inside me. It probably some kind of limit remover or something along these line but one thing for sure is that I won't use it again unless necessary.

The risk of dying because of using it is also high, if not for my mysterious self-healing ability, who know what my body will end up with. Add the fact that when I was drawing on the strength, it's feels more like a curse, hatred, and darkness. Yes, rather than strength it's more suited to call it curse, it tell me to destroy everything and at the same time eating my consciousness bit by bit.

Destroying everything which means destroying even my own body, thanks for the self-healing I can get off with only pain.

"Knowledge is power… huh, never would've thought that I would really take that seriously." I said while letting some light chuckle at the thought of such statement. "But where can I get it?"

Asking Motohama seems plausible choice for now but I doubt that he know more about such a thing like this, in fact he only know about it from… right, almost forgot about the summoning flyer.

I unzipped my school bag and took out the flyer I got from Motohama earlier, my run-in with that little girl before confirm it, magic and supernatural exist. Motohama said to summon one you need to have a strong desire and wish. What do I wish? For now I wish to get information needed for this kind of situation.

I went to one of the unused room just to be on a safe side that if the summoning failed and it will cause… unnecessary effect. Also in case that the being that comes out from this summoning circle is hostile, I summoned Excalibur if fight ever breaks out which I hope not. Holding the flyer with my free left hand, I pictured my desire and wish.

Come…

Then as if responding to my call, the flyer comes to live and from it come the bigger version of the magic circle – this one in blood-like color – it didn't stop there as the magic circle becomes sizable for human body. It rotates in clock-wise manner for a while in the air and from it comes the figure of person.

With crimson hair flowing freely and azure-blue eyes that I remembered very well, the summoned being took a quick look around my room before her gaze falls upon me. Dressed in school uniform that hugged her hour-glass figure, she instantly took a step back once she noticed what I'm holding.

There's no mistake.

"Rias Gremory, I presume?" I asked politely still keeping watch with any moves that she make. Still didn't make any moves except the bead of sweat running down from her heart-shaped face. "I didn't mean any harm for you supernatural."

"Oh really?" She said after I finally stated my purpose. "Then mind to tell me why are you holding a holy sword when you summon me?" Then she opened her hand and from it came a magic circle with similar symbol from the one I summoned her. "If you're actually exorcist then…"

I sighed, took one last check at her before finally dismissing the holy sword in my hand. "See?" I said to her while opening both of my palm and showing it to her. "It's just a precaution in case that I summoned a harmful being."

A second passed after I make Excalibur disappear and even then she still didn't seem to believe me and keep a careful look, but after some seconds passed, she finally took notice of my intention and closed her eyes before a sigh escaped from her mouth.

"Alright then," She said and straightened her stance while placing one hand on her hips. Although she seemed relaxed on the outside I know that she still can't trust me, this is bad, my relationship with the supernatural is already on the scale of bad and if I can I don't want to make it more worsen.

"For your question before, Yes, I'm Rias Gremory, the heir of Gremory Family."

Gremory family, I was right huh. Thanks the internet for that.

"Nice to meet you Gremory… senpai," As I said that she seemed surprised before finally let loose a chuckle. "I think I've said this before, but I will enter the Kuoh Academy if I can right?"

"Right, right, you certainly said that before." She said while closing her eyes and her lip quirked up to form a smile. "Then nice to meet you, Kouhai-kun."

Good, her sense of security has lightened a little, only a little. I need to be the one that control the flow of conversation much less I will find myself be hunted by this being before me.

"Ah I'm sorry for my hostility before, as you can see, I'm still brand new for this supernatural thingy," I said while scratching my cheek. "In fact I only discovered it today."

"You don't know about supernatural until now?" She said so while making surprised expression. "I'm surprised that you haven't known about it yet considering the amount of holy energy leaked from your body, I think that you're from the church or something."

That's a bit weird, her expression of surprise was something that she faking in really well. In fact, if it's not for me to be able to sense the lies in her words, I wouldn't think twice to believe her surprise.

Maybe it's just a supernatural thing that I don't know yet, so I won't ask about it.

"I'm not from the church, and all the jokes aside, I will refrain from calling you "Senpai" until I really enrolled into the school, so nice to meet you Gremory-san."

"Right. You haven't really graduate yet, though I don't really mind about your grades if you enter my peerage."

"Peerage?"

At my question she smiled, "Maybe it's something that you would consider about when you've already know more about us, Devil."

"Devil? You're a devil?"

"You summoned me without knowledge of that?"

"I… got this from my friend. I think that someone delivered this to his home in the night, is it by any chance you?"

She giggled a little before replying, "I see. I didn't expect him to give it to you," a thoughtful expression on her face as she said this, "but you probably have already known the function of this summoning flyer right? So what do you wish for me to do, I'll do anything within my ability to grant your wish."

Again with the fake expression that's really well made, is it another thing that devil race has that she currently used on me to control this conversation?

"Anything?" I asked eyeing the girl in front of me carefully.

"Ah, not exactly "anything" of course, I'm sorry for my interpretation." She answered before licking her lip to indicate her meant. "Anything perverted is not allowed."

"That's fine. I don't really want it anyway." I said to which she did not take very well if her fake smile and the twitch was any means. I coughed to change my wording, "No offense but I don't exactly need that. Anyway, my wish is not something that I want to talk about here and if it's not bothering you, do you know what Sacred Gear is?"

"I know about it, in fact someone from my family had it, is by any chance you have a Sacred Gear?"

"I have…" I paused and trying to think more about what I'm going to tell her.

I still can't exactly trust her. I know the name Divine Dividing from that little girl but was it wise to tell her that? It's still too early for me to tell her, I will do so if after this we meet again and she asked me about it. If she doesn't ask then it's better to left her like that. And I myself still didn't know yet about Divine Dividing or supernatural.

Add the fact how she kept making fake expression that didn't match with what I perceive from her feeling that is somehow set my instinct on edge.

"Something wrong?"

"No, everything is fine."

"Do you know the procedure of making a contract?" She suddenly asked which I nodded. "Then you know that you must give something that's equal in worth right?"

Well… truthfully I didn't know what I will give to her. Heck, I didn't even think that I will actually succeed in summoning one. What is the equivalent of info about supernatural? If Motohama can give one then I'm sure that I can too but what did I give? But Motohama said that he gives Akeno Himejima, a figurine as a payment. Can I use one of the artifacts in here?

Then out of the sudden a growling sound came from my stomach.

"Ah…" I trailed off, a bit taken aback by the sudden emptiness from my stomach. Did the light spear that stabbed my stomach have anything to do with this? "Would a good diner is acceptable payment?" I asked her as a joke.

"It depends," She crossed her arms under her breast while said that. "Though I think that it's better for me to accept some other way of payment instead of the one you suggested." She said noticing me tilting my head. "Sorry but I already have a good cook at my home."

Although I'm surprised at how cooking could also be accepted as payment, I nodded nonetheless.

But that still doesn't solve the hungriness that I suffered right now, so…

"I'm sure that you would think otherwise when you've already tasted it." I said to her and slide the door to goes out of the room. "For now, I think it's time to talk about my request first."

 **-0-**

"Do you get it?" Rias Gremory asked me across the table.

"Most of it."

After giving me the basic run-in of supernatural world, I discover the state of the world that I'm currently in, this world that I living in was hiding a lot of secret behind it.

As much as I want to dismiss it as false information, this devil in front of me was not lying at all. I can't sense any shred of lies in her words and all the information that she gives me are the truth about this world.

Sacred Gear, the god artifact, was something created by God of Bible for human to protect themselves against the supernatural. Gremory-san was not lying when she said that a lot of important figures in human history had some kind of sacred gear.

The three factions were still going at each other throats even though they're still in temporary peace which seems likely to break anytime right now.

Fallen Angels, Angels, and Devils.

Angel is the pure being created by God of Bible to serve their creator, they're not supposed to do anything related to sins whatever it is.

Fallen Angel is Angel who had fallen from their grace and has their wings turned black, which mean that little girl was fallen angel.

And the last is Devils, the creature of sin. They lives in underworld but some gain their territory in human world through ranking like Rias Gremory.

Rias Gremory, the heir of one of the 72 pillar family that created the underworld, Gremory family. 72 families that she mentioned comes from the Lesser Key of Solomon so I can search about it later. She's the supervisor of this town along with Souna Shitori which I discovered later was also a devil and heir to Sitri family.

Oh and the two of them were the little sister of Maou, the ruler of current underworld, so let's not forget about that.

There's much more than that but I think I've remembered the most important things like Sacred Gear and three factions alike.

She giggled a little before saying, "If it's bothering you it isn't counted as one, though if you want to pay me for that, feel free to do so."

"Thanks for that, I don't really have anything equivalent to pay you for now."

"Anything else?" The devil asked and I shake my head in negative response. "Then can you tell me how you can get roped up into supernatural?"

I stayed silent for a while contemplating whether to tell her the truth of what happens before or not, after some tense silence, I finally blurt it out. "I meet a Fallen Angel who tried to kill me," at my answer, Gremory-san strangely looks a bit relieved on the inside although her expression did not change, weird. "I ran away from her and I almost died if not for the fact that I awakened my Sacred Gear in spur of moment."

"Your Sacred Gear, is it that Holy Sword?"

Is it really necessary to tell her this? I don't even know what the holy sword I have is actually a Sacred Gear or not. Although it feels like not since the feeling that I got from those is actually foreign feeling, something that's familiar and foreign at the same time.

Meanwhile Divine Dividing was not, Divine Dividing is part of me, fragment of my soul mixed into one ever since my birth. The holy sword, Excalibur while it feels like part of me at the same time it's more like something that shouldn't be here even though it was also in my soul.

If what she said is true then Sacred Gear was supposed to be classified as one as soul, so if you remove your Sacred Gear it's the same as removing your soul. Divine Dividing, I have no doubt it was a Sacred Gear but I don't really know the detail about Excalibur except it was located inside my soul but the feeling was unlike Divine Dividing.

I nodded slightly. I don't lie because straightly I don't know the origin of Excalibur and if what Gremory-san is true then it should be noted that it's very rare to have two sacred gears much less when one of them is Longinus.

Her eyes sparkled in interest as she discovered my sacred gear, "Then do you know what it name was? As far as I know, your holy sword seems powerful enough to slay high-class devil."

"It's…" I paused and closed my eyes thinking about the name suited for this weapon and ultimately came up with none. "Sorry but I don't really have it. Maybe it doesn't have one in the first place."

She look dejected but otherwise still keeping her posture straight like professional, well now I know what does High-class really mean. "So, is there anything else? Or you would like to show me your skill at cook right now?"

I chuckled at her question before replying, "There's something else I wanted to talk to you about, sorry but the dinner have to wait until I finished with this." I stood up from the cushion and instructed her to follow me. "Actually, I think this isn't such a good idea to bring you..." I said to her who's still following me and I sneak a peek at what she's doing that she doesn't answer me.

She's actually looking around the rest of my house and every details of it with great interest. Her mouth formed a big 'O' at some of the Japanese-looking artifact we passed along the way.

Is she by any chance…

"Ah! I'm sorry I didn't hear you before what are you talking about before?" She asked with great panic but I can see that she's holding the urge to run around the whole house.

"You can admire my house later," I said while we're still on our way to the fallen angel. "For now, I just don't want you to get panic no matter what happen when I reach my destination. Can I trust you on that?"

If what she said is true then fallen angel and devil doesn't really have a good relationship against each other, no scratch that, their relationship was maybe one of the worst there is.

Then she smiled slightly, "Don't worry. I, Rias Gremory of Gremory heir will not betray your trust." To this I only give a slight nod at her formality and continued to the farthest room just beside Elisha's.

"This presence is…" She muttered in low voice although with our small distance I can still hear it, as we got closer to the room, her step start to become slower until, "Don't tell me!?"

"No, wait." I said stopping her hand who ready to bombard me with spell considering how dense the magical power in her hand is. "I've told you to not panic right? This is my second request besides gaining information." She did not seem to believe my word and the crest of her family in her hand is still rotating. "Please…"

She closed her eyes as if thinking and contemplating about my word, then she sighed and the magical energy that's gathering on her left hand disappeared. "I'm going to ask first, what do you want me to do when you've opened this door?"

"I want you to make her can't harm me in any ways possible."

"Do you mean contract? What do you want to force her beside those?"

"I'm going to let her alive but in exchange of her never harming me again for that I will do the same to her."

"Just asking but isn't she the one that I heard from your story?" She asked me slightly uncertain at my idea, seeing my unchanging expression she draw out the conclusion. "She tried to kill you!"

"There's no necessity to do the same for her and as much as I want to do more than that, I don't really want to rob off a person freedom." I said while placing my hand on the surface of paper door. "You can do it right? I wanted it and I will be in debt to you."

"Somehow that doesn't sound really convincing, you will be indebted to me right?"

"Yes, I don't really have something equivalent to gives you for this so I owe you a favor."

"Then join my peer-"

"No. I said favor but creating a mere contact is not something equal to one life right?"

After giving me the basic information on what Peerage is, I honestly feel not safe after knowing that. It almost feels like slave system but the worst part is how it can change Human into Devil, something that I don't really feels safe about. That means, should I die by any chance, I could still be revived by a high-class devil using the Evil Pieces.

My body would be changed in structure, like how I will feels weaker in sun-light and stronger when it was night. The other boons of being devil include of having body stronger and more endurable than normal human, night-vision, and ability to fly with their wings. Sadly they have the weakness to light and holy element that Angel uses.

Grabbing the handle of the door, I slide it open revealing the tied up little angel who is still sleeping. I've tried to tend her wound but it seems like she needed more rest than usual because of the energy that I stole. The red haired devil didn't seem to be too happy to be in the same room as the fallen angel but still entered it nonetheless.

"She did not wake up."

"Ah, sorry, please wait for a second." I said to assure her and make my way to the little girl sleeping form. There is no external wound and all she needed is a rest but I can't do that, she need to wake up now. I'm sorry nameless-girl but I need to do this.

Feeling the familiar weight in my grip, I lifted the sword to check if there is any wrongness in the sword. Of course there isn't, this is Excalibur, the most strongest holy sword in existence, the one that's wielded by legitimate ruler of Britain. There's no way that there's any single mistake on the sword.

Slap!

The loud slapping sound echoed through the whole small room and to confirm my suspicion, indeed the red-haired devil did not even expect me to do that. Meanwhile the main problem is currently moving a little bit and shaking her head before slowly opened her eyes.

Just to be on the safe side I slapped her once again on the opposite cheek.

"Uuuh, what is your problem! You don't need to slap… me… twice…" She trailed off, her word slowly becoming into no more than a murmur.

My hand moved faster than what I think was possible for me to do so. The holy sword quickly found its place on the fallen angel's neck whose life was at my hand right now. I didn't do this just for precaution in case that the fallen angel still hostile but for other reason.

Right now, my status as Divine Dividing user is still unknown. I want to keep it like that and if possible, I don't want Rias Gremory, a high-class devil, to know about this. The one who know about this is only me and this fallen angel. I didn't know whether she catch my meaning but either way, I can keep her silent about my real Sacred Gear.

It's the first time in my life I've ever threatened someone, much less with the prospect of dying. I've tried to make it as threatening and real as possible, if I can use magic I really want to have hypnotizes or suggestion anytime right now.

Even though I threaten her to do so, I don't actually feels like I can beat her now that I lose the surge of my power and my self-healing ability is as far as I can see activated at random times. Because I can't use Divine Dividing in front of Rias Gremory, the only thing I can do is maybe run away but even that I can't be too sure now that I notice the numbness in my limb hasn't gone away.

It was a gamble, a crazy gamble I know. If I failed, I will also lose Gremory's trust and it will possibly started another battle with this fallen angel.

Usually, threatening is an act when you have an advantage against your enemy. Be it blackmail, hostages, or just overall stronger, what I've done right now was something that is completely breaking the rule. I believe it's more suited to call this bluffing rather than threatening.

And I don't want to kill someone. Yeah that's one of the reasons.

She seems to know her current situation and nodded slightly while wearing a terrified look on her face as she avoided my gaze. Good, she still believe me that I am stronger than her, it's better to let her keep that belief because it will make this contract go more smoothly if I can force her to sign it.

I dismissed the holy sword and straightened my posture once again.

Just as she avoids my gaze, she noticed the other occupant of the room, the red-haired devil.

"Red hair? You don't happen to be Rias Gremory right?" The fallen angel asked as she tried to fake a smile that mocked her current situation right now.

"And what if I am?"

She let out a small laugh as if accepting whatever she will deal with after this, I can see a small tear forming on her eyes and quickly I swipe it away earning me a confused look from the fallen angel.

"Don't cry right now." I said to her and pat her head like how I did when that white-haired girl is still here. "I won't kill you and you will be free after this."

"What? What are you going to do?" The fallen angel asked me while also keeping watch of Gremory-san who has leaned against the wall of the room.

"With the help of Rias Gremory here," I said while sparing a glance behind me noticing how Gremory-san was trying to hold off the urge to probably kill the fallen angel in front of me. "I will create a contract to make yo-"

"Obey you? God," From her word I noticed Gremory-san winced slightly probably in pain because of the 'God' word. "I rather die than serving a human like you even though you had Lo-"

"To make you can't harm me in any way possible and vice versa." I said quickly when she was just going to said Longinus.

"Are you stupid?" The fallen angel asked me.

"Anyway it's up to you of course," I said while crossing my arm over my chest. "If you decide to die then I too have no problem with it."

While it seems cruel, I thought it was necessary for someone like her. No matter how she tried to carefully hide it, it won't change the fact that she tried to **kill** me once. Any normal middle-school student maybe won't think about killing someone if it's necessary but it was different matter for me.

At least I was grateful that I can't even get panic on situation like this.

"No, it's fine. Thank god that you're idiot." She said and I could sense she was truly thankful for my treatment. "That aside, need a bit help here please?" She motioned by shaking her body a little to show her discomfort.

I get closer to her slowly while also checking whether or not she's lying. It seems like she didn't wish to start another battle right now so it's safe for now, while thinking like that I untied her slowly.

She checked her wrist to see any bruise and when she found none, she stood up and soon haves to look up at me due to our differences in height. Awkward as hell… The person that tried to kill me is by any means look cute what's with her gothic-lolita outfit and her temper which made her look like children.

I'm really a broken one aren't I? To think like that of someone who tried to kill me just this afternoon.

"Then can we start now?" Gremory-san asked as she stood closer to me and meets the fallen angel straight into the eyes. "I believe an introduction is necessary for this kind of thing."

"Hyoudou Issei."

"Mittelt Fallen Angel of Grigori."

With my nod as a sign that signaled the contract to start, Gremory-senpai lifted her hand and opened it, from there came a magic circle in similar manner like before and instead of spell or magic, a scroll landed down on her hand.

"Are you sure that you don't want to add any condition to your advantage?"

I didn't really want to rob off a person free will to choose but it wouldn't hurt to have more information. Should I add more term to the contract? I'm the one in control of Mittelt's life with this contract, I can make her my slave, I can make her obey me senselessly, or I can take advantage of her fallen angel status.

But still…

"Alright," I said firmly, decided with what I'm going to do, but before that… "I truthfully don't want to do this but I need as much help as I can, so to do that I want to ask you first."

"Hmpfh," She huffed, puffing her cheek out in a manner similar to a child throwing tantrum. "Well at least you asked for it first, what is it?"

"I want you to provide me information for the Fallen Angel side and to not let anyone know about this."

"What is that it?" She asked disbelieving. "Geez, alright, alright, I accept it."

"Gremory-san."

"Added." She stated with tone of professional, "To Hyoudou Issei, all intentions and actions to kill and harm Mittelt shall be forbidden for all eternity." She stopped and took a closer look at Mittelt and I did not miss how she squint her eyes when she do it.

"To Mittelt, first all intentions and actions to kill and harm Hyoudou Issei shall be forbidden for all eternity. Second Mittelt will give Hyoudou Issei any information she know regardless of her will."

I winced at the last part, it still making me feels bad to make her do something that she can't refuse even though it's just to give information but she has accepted it with her own will so I know that at least I give her a choice.

"The last is… I need your blood, both."

Seeing my confused look at the lack of sharp weapon, Mittelt sighed and took my hand and upon closer inspection I can see how sharp her nail is, she's going to use that?

My thought stopped there as I feel the pain comes from my index finger and from the place where Mittelt's nail dug itself, came a drop of blood that dropped onto the scroll. The scroll magically sucked the droplet and Mittelt do the same to her own finger.

The pattern in the scroll comes to live with both of our blood and it burned in blue fire. Although it seems like nothing changed on the outside, I feel different, as if something is restricting me from producing any will or intent to harm her. I balled up my hand to test it out and give a straight thrust at her face which stopped just an inch from her face without my will.

It's real huh? I can't really harm her now.

I noticed Gremory-san look more tired than usual and I give a quick pray for her to recover soon and soon that turned out to be a mistake as Gremory-san shook slightly and quickly placed her hand on her head with pained look on her face.

Oh right Devil indeed.

"I'm sorry, Gremory-san."

"Don't worry about it," She swatted it away as if nothing. "Unless you purposefully do it then don't do it ever again on our kin."

Mittelt, oblivious of what's happening in front of her, look at the increasing headache of Gremory-senpai curiously before she realizes what just happen and laughed out loud. "Oh this is rich! You forgot that she's a devil and prayed for her didn't you!" and continued laughing.

I admit I forgot about the part that praying hurt devil but you don't need to laugh right. It's a newbie mistake, someone new to supernatural. If the first supernatural that I encounter and have a talk with was not devil then I'm sure as hell that this won't happen in the first place.

"Alright, that's enough laughing for today," I said while clapping my hand to get their attention. "For now I think that both of you are hungry right?"

 **-0-**

"It was…" Gremory-senpai trailed off looking for the right word to use after she takes the first bite of 'her payment'.

"Delicious…" Mittelt finished slowly but that too changed abruptly as she started to devour every single eat-able thing in the table, uncaring about the two of us here.

I smirked cockily, if there's something that I enjoy in my life, it was cooking. Why? The act of cooking itself is already relaxing for me to do and seeing someone eat my food happily is enough for me to enjoy it. It bring smile to other people when they're happy and because of that too, I was happy.

Cooking is a part of saving people, by Hyoudou Issei.

"How is it?" I asked her who's still looking at my cooking carefully. "Just so you know, you can go back to your 5-star chef in your house because I'm pretty sure that they can cook more delicious than me right?"

"Mmm…"

She didn't devour it hungrily like Mittelt but her gaze keeps switching between the meal and me, confused whether to accept her lose or not. Ultimately she bites her lip and gladly ate the food that I made with tear on her eyes, I win.

She quickly finished the first bowl of her serving and then offered me her empty bowl. "Second."

"Sorry but I can't exactly give a second without hearing you say it."

"What? That fallen angel can eat big without your permission and you asked me for this?" I stayed silent because I didn't get the answer I hoping for, she sighed and finally accepted her lose. "Alright, you win this time. It was delicious alright? More than the one made by my cook at home! Come on that fallen angel will quickly devour the whole table if you didn't hurry!"

I smiled before taking the bowl from her hand and filled it with the rice.

"Thanks for the compliment Gremory-san."

She nodded eagerly while chomping down on the food, she eats more slowly than Mittelt but more gracefully. I suppose that is another boon of being High-class, but while it's like that, it didn't escape my notice that I can see how she fail to keep her demeanor and often switch between acting like child and adult.

It brought a smile on my face that someone truly enjoyed my cooking.

…

After Rias Gremory came home, I made Mittelt stay here because she didn't have the place to go back to. Partly it was because of the pity but mostly I just want her to stay because I want to interrogate her thoroughly with the incident lately and if her friend that confessed to me before is still out there hunting for human.

And after making sure that nobody is in my house to hear what I'm going to ask, I finally decide to interrogate Mittelt. I thought that if I will be interrogating someone that I can't hurt it will be hard, now that I lose my capability of threatening her I really thought of that, but I almost forgot about the contract.

The contract was really fascinating, just by a simple command like "Tell me" or "Give me", I can order her to split out many details of what she's doing or some basic ability of fallen angel. Things like Longinus-class Sacred Gear, her mission in here, other fallen angels, stray devils, and other probably-important-things in the future.

I need to make sure I have at least, a minimum amount of information needed to face supernatural in case they decided to target me again. Come to think of it, I never ask about myself…

"Do you know anything about Holy Sword Excalibur?"

"Why do you ask that? Last I checked your holy sword doesn't resemble Excalibur at all, it was property of the church now, I heard that it was broken into seven pieces though."

The church? That's strange, I didn't think that there's anyone who can wield such a sword like Excalibur except King Arthur. But the strangest thing that I found was there's another holy sword named Excalibur and right now it was owned by the church. Either the sword that I have right now is a fake or the one in the church was the fake.

I summoned my holy sword and the surprised gasp came from Mittelt did not go unnoticed by me. There's no way that this is a fake, the sheer brilliance of this golden sword is enough for me to believe that this is the strongest holy sword. The most majestic holy sword wielded by King of Knight.

It was sealed. I can't call its true name. I should be able to transform my magical energy into light and increases it by accelerating it. Why can't I use Excalibur's true name? If I can do so, I believe that I may have one of the most overpowered weapons in this world. Did it have to do something with how I'm not worthy of this sword? Or no one is really worthy because this sword is specifically created for King Arthur?

It was tiring to think about something that I don't have any base information about. I can make a list of possible theories behind it and the list will goes on until tomorrow because right now, I have already deduced several ways to lift the seal. Like force-lifting it or there's some condition that needed to release the seal.

But I can't do any of that simply because I still haven't able to use any magic, maybe the books that I have collected will tell me the way to use it. If I can use magic then maybe it's possible to force-lift the seal.

I sighed and dismissed Excalibur on my hand. Come to think of it, I get some weird image about the other sword than Excalibur. Did it have any relation to why I can't release its true name? My thought was interrupted by the sudden increase of volume from the TV which the culprit was Mittelt.

"Mittelt." I called her who's still watching TV.

"Don't use my name so casually human." She said glaring at me who didn't feel anything about using her name like an old friend.

"Is that so? Then you can call me Ise," I said while smiling. "Alright I believe that this is already past your bedtime Mittelt." I took the remote from her hand and turned off the TV while quickly turned off the lamp as well.

"What!? I'm not a child!" She screamed while I was waiting for her to make her way out of the room in the dark. "And don't turn off the lamp! I'm not devil that can see in dark!"

I turn on the lamp once again and found Mittelt searching around frantically for the source of light before realizing that I'm watching her all along. Her expression quickly turned into one kind of anger but once again, the contract keeps her from doing what she wanted to do.

"You will regret ever doing this to me human."

"In case that you forget about it, we can't harm each other."

I prepare myself and my extra guest for sleep after I told Mittelt to sleep beside me but she refused with a shade of red on her face and saying it improper for us to sleep together. So it was decided that she will sleep beside my room so that I can keep my eyes on her.

And so I drifted off to my sleep.

….

I woke up in midst of night clutching my head at the sudden headache.

Not only headache, it feels like it will burst in at any moment now. My brain seemed like it will explode from inside or fried off with the heat, a second passed before I can hear my heart beating again.

It was only short-lived as I feels another burst of pain assaulted me from the inside, my body was being pressured down from outside force but at the same time it feels like it came from inside despite the pain I felt clearly indicate otherwise.

"Gaah… haah… aghh!?"

I twisted my neck to see what's going on back there where the source of pain came from. There's nothing unusual on my back but why does it seemed like it will sprout out a pair of wing? Not Divine Dividing but an actual dragon wing.

I tried to steady my breathing due to the sudden pain but to no avail, I failed to keep up with my mind. It's not even stopped at my back, the pain keep growing and spreading to the rest of my body. Every inch of my muscle, every bone seemed messed up when the pain spreading out. The ringing sound in my ears grow louder each time I tried to move and instead it felt more like a beast roaring.

Despite being unable to see through the inside of my body, I know the bone inside of me is moving. My bones are breaking themselves over and over again only to be restructured again, it keeps repeating itself along with the sound of creaking bones coming from within me combined with the roaring sound that resulted in the symphony of destruction.

"Aaaggh!"

I squeeze the futon and rolling my body in hope that the pain will go away if I do that, the pain didn't disappear and constantly forcing me to keep myself awake. I can't even get a goodnight sleep with this, no, screw the sleep I can't even close my eyes if this keep up.

My brain's burning. No it's melted right now due to the unbearable pain I experienced right now. The roaring sound didn't stop even as I wiggle around like a bug. I stopped trying to clutch my head and instead clutching my back, trying to stop whatever it is that caused me pain.

It will explode.

I will die.

My body is not myself anymore.

I muster up whatever left of my free-will to look at the clock with my blurry eyesight, it's not even midnight yet, I must endure this pain for another six? No, five hours of torturous pain.

That alone is already a nightmare for me.

 **-0-**

"What… did just happen…?" I mutter out loud to no one. The nightmare has finally over, no, not nightmare, I kept reminding myself over and over again. This was reality, the pain that I felt before was real.

"The pain's gone."

I feel no pain anymore and true to my prediction, the pain stopped after the morning. Strangely I don't feel sleepy or tired despite the fact that I almost get no sleep. I think I've slept for… three hours? Well that's enough already.

I sighed and tried to stand up, keyword tried.

And found myself falling over due to my left foot slips. I landed with a hard thud but the pain seems… reduced for some reason. I touch my left foot and found nothing with it, even though I touch it, at the same time I don't feel like touching my leg.

I tried to do the same with my left leg or my left arm, nothing absolutely nothing. Pinching the left side of my chest and, again, feel nothing. I tried to stand up using both of my hand as support but to no avail failed due to how my left arm refuse to move.

"It's numbed?" I asked to myself. "Wait, my left arm…? What is going on…"

Is it the side-effect of using that power? That half of my body now is numbed? I tried to lift my leg and it moves fine, except the fact that it moves slower than usual then everything is fine. It's like the numbing one gets from having the blood circulation to a limb cut off temporarily, so it should heal in time.

But I can't use my left arm, no matter how I tried to move it, it's stuck like this. Unmoving and hanging uselessly, this was worse than numb. I think I need more time to cook with one arm.

….

"Did I do something when I sleep?"

In front of me was myself.

In the mirror, it was reflection of me.

Brown hair and brown eyes, all in all it looks like your typical normal Japanese average student look.

Except the few strands of my hair turning blonde, then yeah completely normal average.

There isn't any thief in my house and I doubt that Mittelt do all of this for revenge. Because of the contract she cannot harm me but she can tricked me or playing prank on me, but when I last checked she still sleeping comfortably.

But the blonde color look like sprinkled with gold dust, it reminds me of foreigner. It looks so natural that I doubt people can differentiate this between the real blonde, it's like I was born with it. Did the pain and this have a relation?

Alright, it's just speculation. Do not use baseless assumption. I take off my clothes to observe any other change. There isn't anything weird going on in my body it seems, I carefully observed my back specifically only because Divine Dividing come out from my back.

Finding nothing unusual with my body, I checked if I still have Excalibur by calling it on my hand and spreading out my wing of light. It seems weird at first but Divine Dividing ability to **[Divide]** is really useful for support, the only thing that I found dissatisfaction with is that I need to touch my opponent. And that super mode that I use before is impossible normally.

It's like filling a jug with water. The jug is my body while the water is the energy, when you pour too much water or energy, the wing should be automatically let out any energy that exceeded the container which is my body.

If I don't then my body will be damaged, that super mode earlier was me trying to contain all of the energy within myself without letting out any of it, an act that should kill me. If I don't have the regeneration yesterday I wouldn't be here, that super mode is really dangerous.

Still… there's something off about Divine Dividing.

It would automatically let out any excess energy but yesterday it doesn't do that…

It purposefully contained the extra energy inside my body which would result in my death.

It's almost like… the wing tried to kill me.

But I still alive all because of the regenerative healing yesterday. Is it triggered at random or I should be in live and death situation again? Or I could actually use it but I don't know how?

All the seriousness aside, I could sense that Mittelt has moved from her room presumably going to living room or bathroom which I was currently in.

Right, I need to take a bath first. But before that I need to cut this blonde hair, it will look weird and people will obviously notice the strangeness. It was a good thing that it's only a few strands, I don't know if half of my hair will turn blonde just in one night.

 **-0-**

"So did you like a girl or not?"

"Why the sudden question?"

Currently I was in my class, enjoying what little time I had after the school before I'm going home. Usually I spent this time, talking non-sense with Matsuda or Motohama. At first we're talking about the usual perverted thing but suddenly they asked an out-of-place question. Today at school isn't exactly ideal that I want to repeat again, getting a lot of weird stares because of my left arm, walking weirdly because my left leg is a bit slower, and finally scolded by teacher.

"Well, you don't even get hard with some of our porn even though we watch it together," Matsuda explained calmly while I tried to find my way out of this. "I doubt that normal teenager reacting like that is supposed to be normal."

"Is that it? If you're not perverted hormonal teenager then I think it's possible to do that."

"This is obviously some kind of disease if you can't even get embarrassed when you're looking at the naked girl, you don't even feel shame when you're going into the girl locker room!" Motohama said, countering the statement I said earlier.

"Coming from two of you who're peeping on girls, I don't think I deserve that," I said while keeping my eyes on the girls in our classroom who're looking at our group in weird way. "And it's not like I'm trying to peep, I don't know that there's someone changing in there. I'm just trying to repair the broken hinge."

"Yeah, I know but seriously Ise. Are you swinging that way?"

"That's not even funny anymore." I said deadpanned at his attempt of joke. Seriously, the two are already made this joke over and over again all because I have small amount of libido.

I'm straight. I told myself. I'm straight, as straight as sword.

Checking the clock on my phone, I hope that Mittelt doesn't try to make a mess within my home. Come to think of it Kazumi-san and Murayama will come to my home today right? I think I need to go home early before they discovered that there's a cosplaying little girl in my home.

"I need to go home early today, enjoy your day you two."

"Why so early today? There's no one in your home right?" Matsuda asked.

"I need to meet someone today," I answered his question. "The problem is she's already in my home."

""It's a girl?!""

"Calm down, she's little girl for god sake."

I sighed before preparing to go home, for real this time. Ignoring the rambling of my perverted friends, I quit the classroom and make my way to the school gate. On my way to the outside, I happen to hear an interesting conversation.

"…Someone from class A is missing?"

"Kusaka Reya from 3-B is also gone you know?"

It picked up my curiosity when two students from the senior year missing. Probably they're not really missing, maybe just going to their friend house or other thing needed to take care of. I walked down the stairs into the 2nd year hallway. Once I was in there, again a lot of people talking about missing students even in the junior section.

"Ebina from class 2-A is also absent today, did you think she's also missing?"

"No way, there are already five people missing in our grade!"

Too much people missing in the same day and yet no one is doing anything. I can't blame them, they're students, their priority is to study not to find missing people or to check whether rumor are true or not. Of course the same can be said to me but sadly I'm a little different…

I need to find out about this, supernatural or not, I can't just let unnatural things that can risk people lives happen. Still there's something strange, Gremory-san or Souna Shitori should have known about this, this is _their_ city after all.

I went to the class 3-B, Kusaka Reya is famous for her beauty and considered as nomination of girl you want to be girlfriend with. It's easy to find out about her if I ask one of her class, her friend, a girl with glasses.

"Did you know anything weird about Kusaka-san yesterday? Like where she's gone to or anything along this line?"

"About Reya, yes indeed I was with her yesterday. We were supposed to go home together but instead she goes to abandoned house near the border."

"Abandoned house? Why did she go to a place like that?"

"I don't really know Hyoudou-kun, I tried to stop her but she didn't seem to hear me."

Magic.

If something doesn't follow the rule of this world then the probability of it related to magic is high. Add the fact that there's a lot of danger roaming around the whole town like Stray Devil and Fallen Angel. But the Fallen Angel didn't kill anyone who doesn't have Sacred Gear or power right?

"You didn't go after her?"

"Well I tried to, but suddenly I have a bad feeling about the place and I don't want to be in that area too long." She answered while adjusting his glasses. "It looks like that area haves some kind of poison that contaminated the air."

Sickening air? Bounded field? I see so whatever it is in there probably set up one to prevent people from coming except the targeted. It just that Kusaka-san is the one that targeted so she went to the abandoned building just like that? Controlled by someone?

"Have you tried to call police or teacher?"

"I have tried to call the police and they said they will search her tomorrow, I don't know why tomorrow though."

Supernatural is involved in this and based on my experience with the fallen angel in this town. They didn't seem to be harmless. If hypnosis did indeed exist in this world then it's easy for Fallen Angel to manipulate people around, high chance was they said they will search tomorrow because today is Kusaka-san last day…

"Where's the abandoned house exactly?"

 **-0-**

"I'm home."

The first thing I notice when I was in the entrance to my house was that the certain guest footwear is missing. The second thing I notice was the lack of certain fallen angel presence in my house, she doesn't go out right?

I carefully made my way to the living room expecting to see Mittelt, expecting that my instinct was _wrong_.

There's no one in the living room. No sign of life except me, standing there dumbfounded at the turn of event looking around to absolutely make sure that I was wrong. I should've known better to trust my instinct, where did she go? I've told her to stay in this house and absolutely don't go anywhere.

But that didn't mean she will follow my order.

Of course, of course she won't follow it. She, no matter how I see it, was fallen angel. Creature that has fallen from its grace and instead living in sin. She's still a child. She's not someone from the era of Great War or originally Angel in the first place. Yes, maybe because I thought that once she can't harm me, she's as harmless as normal kid.

How wrong I was to think like that.

But I can still wrong about that, maybe she's only going out to get some fresh air or meet with other fallen angels…. Oh god, please not the latter. She can't harm me. That much I already know, but even if that's true, that doesn't mean she can't order her friends to kill me right?

Either way I can't wait here and doing nothing, I know that a lot of people have gone missing this days but the problem with Mittelt can't be ignored too. I need to take care both of the problems, I can't do it at the same time but if by any chance that the culprit behind the kidnapping was actually Fallen Angel then I can solve them in one swoop.

In theory it was easy to solve this problem, find Mittelt, interrogate her about where her friends were right now, and then if I can talk them out of their mission. If worse comes to worse then I will kill them if they proved to be hostile. Should I call Gremory-san for help?

….No, I don't want to rely too much on Devil side.

If I die then that's that, no, screw dying I can't die yet. I must search for Mittelt right now. My best chance was probably on the abandoned house where the students were kidnapped. I need all help that I can get but right now I don't have any means of calling Devil again.

This is Devil city, this is their city. It should be natural for them to take care of this so that means even without me telling them, they would move. That's what I'm thinking.

I don't have anyone to help me so that leaves me to do it alone.

Magic, I don't know anything about them before so it will probably be hard for me to use it. Several books and scrolls that I've brought from the shed were all centered on magic, who know maybe I can use some of them if I go to battle.

 **-0-**

Alright, I got the gist of it.

Basically I just use my head to create calculation and applying it to magic circle. I need the knowledge to control equation, like if I want to create a fire then I need to apply the equation needed to create them. I wish I had more time to study math.

Calculations were the core of magic. That the better a magician was, the more efficient their magic circles were and the less magical power they wasted. I didn't have time to create my own made magic circle but thankfully, I managed to copy some from the books, some that will be useful for the battle to come.

Magic like Haste, which will improve my speed to at least above normal human, Endurance which effect was obvious, and in case that I can't use my arm to swing Excalibur, I can use some magic like Fireball and Lightning. Several defensive magic circles ranging from high-powered to low one. I didn't have time to test all of them due to the time running out.

If by any chance that the kidnapped students will die today then each time I spent here trying to create magic circle is the same as letting them died. I can't use my left arm so my power will decrease a _lot._ I just need to fuel the magic circle with my own magical power so that take cares of the problem of incapable of attacking.

Divine Dividing, I don't know why but I get the feeling that I shouldn't use it unless needed. Not because I don't want to but my instinct proved to me that it never miss the mark, something bad will happen if I use the wing and I'm sure as hell don't want to die because of that. The pain that came from my back is the proof of what the wing will do to me if I tried to use it again, maybe.

I stood up from the cushion while pocketing the magic circles. It will take maybe ten minutes if I run from here to that house, I can't ignore Mittelt too. If she's there and she's the one behind this kidnapping then I can't harm her, a big problem for me and big advantage for her. Now I start to have a second thought about that contract yesterday. It's still an assumption, there's no definite proof that she's betraying me.

But then again… she isn't exactly on my side to begin with.

…

Stink.

My first thought when I stepped into this house was that. The combination between the sickening air created by bounded field and the disgusting smell almost made me reconsidering my choice to enter this house. I know what this smell was of course, it's the smell of corpse and there's no denying it that, a _lot_ of people died in this house.

No one entering this house, no one dared or more correctly term was no one even noticed to in the first place. The bounded field made other people ignoring this house, making it non-existent, even when I entered this house, no one bat an eye to my action. This was serious, I've stepped into death zone and I could still come back, the entrance is still behind my back.

Three magic circles in my hand, Haste, Strength, and Endurance. This is the basic enhancement for me to surpass the limit of normal human. Fuelling three of them at the same time with magical power making them came to live and shine brightly before died down. The magic circle disappears from my hand at the same time the light died down.

There's nothing changed with my appearance but I knew that something changed, it felt different. I don't exactly become buffer but the effect was the same. The moment it activated, I need to take care of this fast before the effect disappears. Exactly one hour is the time for the buff.

My left hand is still hanging useless like a lump of dead meat. It doesn't move, no matter what I do. It will be _really_ hard to battle with state like this. Finding nothing unusual with my normal eyesight, I took out another magic circle and activated it. This was the magic circles to enhance my eyesight to see spiritual energy. It doesn't exactly give me far-sight but it allows me to see something unusual that's unseen by normal people.

There's something moving behind the third pillar from the left. Second later, Excalibur was already in my hand complete with the golden brilliance it emanated like yesterday. Gripping the holy sword tightly with my right hand, I focused my eyesight at the moving presence. The presence moving again and I could feel its intent to kill became much stronger.

"I smell something delicious~"

A woman voice can be heard from out of nowhere. Even without using magic to enhance my hearing, I already know the source of the voice from. It's not exactly normal woman voice. It was neither mature nor child-like, a voice that's definitely female and yet at the same time isn't.

"Is it sweet?" The loud voice says while I keep my eyes at the moving presence. "Or is it bitter?"

With the voice finally finished its word, it finally shown itself, the first thing I see from the figure was human figure. A woman topless figure came from behind the pillar floating hiding its lower body, hiding what the thing before me truly is.

It's not Fallen Angel and it's not human either. The upper body consisted of perfectly shaped woman figure without clothes to hide it but the lower body was completely different thing. It almost reminded me of sticking cute figurine head into an animal body.

With the head and body of beautiful woman instead of finding shapely female leg, what I found in its place was an abomination. Her lower body consists of gigantic beastly thing with four legs, each of them having sharp claws that can seemingly shred my body into pieces easily and a snake stuck into where the tail was supposed to be. Its body looks like a centaur but with the tail being replaced with snake, I can't think anything than chimera.

"Oh, it's another human?" The abomination before me asked in disappointed tone. "Or not? You used magic earlier didn't you?"

I didn't answer it question instead opted to keep my eyes at its lower body. It seems strong, other than its gigantic size, sharp claws, and the hissing snake-tail. I can't find anything dangerous anymore. Its upper body seems harmless as harmless as normal human but then again I can't be too sure. This was _supernatural_ after all.

"You're not one of those exorcists in the city right?"

"No," I answered, finally opening my mouth ever since I came here. "I'm just here to take back what you probably deemed as food." I said my answer based on the smell of the corpse and a lot of bloods painted the wall around me.

"And yet you hold a holy sword," The thing said while licking its lip with its long tongue. "Either way I can't let you out of here alive," While saying that its gigantic body moved, each time it moved, the building shook slightly. "You can join the humans before you after I eat you too!"

I didn't waste any time thinking about her word and jumped back a _bit_.

What is happening was different than what I'm thinking. My body jumped back several meters from where I'm standing before, this must be the result of Strength effect. I don't have anything to attack from this range and the only thing I have is Excalibur and several magic circles that will run out if I use it so soon.

The thing's front leg which was armed with sharp claws dug deep into the floor where I was before. It moved faster than what the size supposed to be, it dashed to where I'm at and instead of avoiding it, I charged at the abomination far more faster than how I charged at Mittelt yesterday with the effect of Haste.

I swung the holy sword and Excalibur shone brightly while making a trail of golden light when I'm swinging it. Like hot knife cutting through butter, it sliced the abomination front-left leg cleanly without effort. It's weird, I know that Strength also enhanced how I swing the sword with my arm but there's no way that it can cut through easily like that, it can't even be called battle when I can slice through it easily without any effort.

My brain quickly comprehended that fact and commanded my body to jump back again. The hissing snake-tail moved and its fang soon found its place at where I was a moment ago before I jumped back. Dismissing the holy sword, I took out a magic circle from my pocket. Activating it without even checking its drawing, the magic circle became more bigger as I felt the drain on my side.

It rotate in clock-wise manner before it shoots out a single line of light that pierced through where the abomination chest was, leaving nothing but a hole in it. What I've just used was a light-element based attack. Based on what Excalibur did to this abomination, I know that this thing was not a Fallen Angel but a Devil.

And that attack before proved that fact, this was a Stray Devil. One that's explained by Mittelt yesterday, they along with devil race in common has natural weakness to light and holy element. Then that means I have the advantage here and that did not even counting how I have three more light-element attack in my pocket, two that's high-cost.

"You… There's no way that a holy sword can do that!"

Of course it was. This is Excalibur, the strongest holy sword in existence after all. Any devils, high-class or not, stand equal before this holy sword. At first I was skeptical about fighting this gigantic abomination only with Excalibur and a few magic circles but now? Now I have no hesitation to kill this thing, unlike Mittelt, this thing has proven to be more dangerous due to her hunting innocent people.

And I don't think I can come to term with this… thing before me. It haves human body sure but I don't think that its brain work the same way as us, human. It will surely be hard for it to keep balance due to the missing foot, my original plan was to use hit-and-run tactic. With Haste enhances my speed, I know the full extent of my speed and I thought I can keep attacking while avoiding.

The fact that this thing was stray devil ruined my plan.

But I can use it to work too. No it's better this way. Unlike when I battled Mittelt, this time I know my opponent weakness further enhancing my winning rate. And this time I don't need to keep her alive, sometime it's easier to kill someone than to defeat it.

The snake-tail moved exactly like how it name implies. It opened its mouth and ready to swallow me whole, I don't even need to use Excalibur for this nor do I need to use light-element attack. While thinking like that I took out another piece of paper, its circle was more complicated than the one I use before.

Pouring more magical energy than needed to activate it, the magic circle came to live. The effect was entirely different than what I've used, a big fire sprouting out from the circle, engulfing the whole snake's head. The last thing that I heard from the snake was the loud hissing sound before the stray devil itself screamed in pain.

I didn't have time to finish my thought when the devil attacked me again, this time it's different. It doesn't use its monster form to attack me but instead a spear-like thing was in the human body's hand, without even having a second thought I moved when it hurled the spear-like thing at me. Due to our difference in height, it will be impossible for it to attack me with the spear at close range so it threw it?

The spear stuck on the ground, a few meter from me but my instinct telling me to run away from it. I activated another magic, this one was simple drawn and the effect itself was basic. Feeling the drain on my reserves, I can already feel its effect. I jumped normally to the air but the effect of magic took me far higher than what normal human can achieve.

True to my instinct, the spear exploded in white light destroying anything that's caught inside it.

What I activated before was Lightweight. Just as it name implies, it reduced my weight and I can stay in the air longer than usual thanks to them. I reach the ceiling of this house in no time and the stray devil was already grinning like a madman and readied its spear to stab me once I fall from the height.

I need to finish it fast and I don't want to waste any time lest if I want to die, because of the fact that I've advantage over it doesn't mean I can rest easy. It stronger than me by large margin because of its monster form and it can throw the spear that can reach out for long-range. I summoned Excalibur once again and I took notice of the devil changing expression before it put up guard to defend itself.

Of course it was useless.

The Excalibur cleaved through the spear-like thing easily and it didn't stop at that, it also cut off its right arm from the torso along with the spear. The scream of pain can be heard from the Stray Devil when I landed on the floor.

It didn't stop trying as it tried to stomp on me with its gigantic foot, I don't even have time to look up as when I do it, it was already several inches above my head. Avoid it, my instinct telling me but my brain knows better that I don't have time to.

I look at the incoming death, I hope it works.

Dismissing the holy sword, I took out another magic circle. The magic circle shine brightly and it did nothing except standing proud before the massive stray devil's foot. The monster's foot didn't hit the ground. It wasn't able to stomp completely. The defensive magic circle is the shield that protected me, it was part of me.

I poured more energy to the magic circle, but to no avail it cracked under the massive weight of monster's foot. I really hate it when I can't use my left arm, I complain to myself. I pushed the shield that separating me with its foot, I can do it, I need to if not then I will die.

My arm feels like it will break when I tried to push it with more force but I endure it, I could hear the sound of bone cracking but like yesterday it was healed. The pain is still there but in the end it was just a pain, it's nothing like I can endure.

"Die lowly human!" The monster screamed as it put more weight to its foot.

I internally screamed as I feel the pain came from my cracking left arm. Stronger, I need more strength to.

!

The magic circle exploded releasing the enormous amount of magic inside it at once, sending the stray devil off balance. I don't need to have second thought about it and quickly jump in air with Excalibur ready in my hand to slay off the abomination. I swung Excalibur in vertical, cleaving through the stray devil in two easily. It leaves the trail of golden dust when it cut the stray devil.

I breathe in relief once I look at the corpse unmoving, I don't feel disgusted, I don't feel bad, I don't feel doing something wrong.

In fact, I don't feel anything at all.

Of course this isn't how normal human act when they kill someone. But I didn't have much choice here right? Even though I've changed, I don't change that much.

Observing the surrounding around me, I didn't notice anything unusual. Further observing, I'm seeing the life force of several peoples under this floor. The stray devil keeps the human at the basement huh? I calmly made my way down to where I see the life force and I instinctively covered my nose once I reach there.

Blood.

Corpse.

Lot of them.

Smell of blood and rotting corpses filled the air as I walked past the one that I already know as dead, it's just like that hell when I was a child but not on the same scale.

That day I cried but this time I'm not.

Groan of pain and screaming echoed throughout my eardrum, some who can still see with what left of their body, was the one who's first to notice that the devil has already dead once they see me.

Some of the people was chained to the wall of basement and have their head cut off, some was bitten off, some who eaten with their clothes on, some who was naked, and some who's still living but lost their body part. There's actually a lot that I can't explain simply because their form itself is something that is unrecognizable even for me.

I can't do anything for the dead except to give them a quick pray and saying my apology.

But I don't feel bad or regretting it all, what if I came sooner? What if I kill that devil earlier? Thoughts like that began to form inside of me but truthfully I don't feel anything about it. I saved some of them and left the one that's already dead as a sacrifice.

Because there's nothing that I can do.

I can't go back to redo my action, I can't go to the past, I can't do all of the "What if" thoughts. They're impossible for me so there should be nothing to regret. Because I'm going with that logic in my mind, I was incapable of feeling even a shred of regret.

Checking to make sure that there's no enemy left, I called the police to take care of this.

I need to go through several useless question, asking me whether it was a joke or not but in the end they believed me and they will come for another ten minutes.

Ah, the corpse.

The stray devil corpse would certainly earn me a lot of questions if they happen to found it. Where can I hide it huh? Or maybe I can burn it with several high-cost fire magic?

My thought stopped when I hear the sound of wing flapping that didn't came from the bird.

Fallen Angel.

The door to the house opened, revealing the one that made the voice before.

Wings.

Six wings painted in deep black color glued onto the man's back. A man with black hair and dark blue eyes, he's wearing a pale violet trenchcoat over a white dress shirt with a matching ascot, black pants and shoes, and a black fedora.

"So you're the Longinus that Mittelt mentioned huh?" The man spoke calmly, his voice while calm and silent echoed through the wall of the house. "Well, the holy sword too of course." He says while reaching out his hand to me, as if he can hold me from there. From his grip, a light spear was created, different from Mittelt, it was blue in color.

Not only the color was different but it was stronger, better, more condensed, smaller, but overall was something that I don't wish to have pierced my body.

"How about dying now?"

The angel of death says while smiling.

 **-0-**

 **Viser, that stray devil at episode 3. Lot of people didn't seem to use her simply because she's weak devil that's working behind the scene. This story is different of course, a lot of things going on behind the scene that can't be explained because this story was told from Issei's perspective.**

 **Rias manipulation that's more complicated than the usual one, Mittelt betrayal, Stray exorcist in the town, and group of Fallen Angel hunting Sacred Gear user. Anyway there's certainly a lot that I can't write in one chapter.**

 **And yeah, Issei can't use Excalibur.**

 **Issei summoned the King of Knight who's both honorable and prideful meanwhile he, himself was someone who doesn't have honor or pride. Added with how prideful Dragon was. The irony is strong in this one. So, yeah because of his lack of pride and honor, he can't unseal the seal, poor Issei.**

 **If he don't have regenerative nature of Avalon, Issei will died in previous chapter when he has too much energy, it was explained in previous chapter that his body should be torn from inside due to having too much energy but Avalon quickly regenerate that. Without Avalon, Issei is as good as dead.**

 **So yeah, most of the reason why I choose Arthur as the Heroic Spirit is because of Avalon.**

 **Also Mittelt in this story won't go all cliché like "You spared me, so I fall in love with you" that. She's fallen angel and Issei mention that although Mittelt was thankful that he spared her life, did not mean that she will follow him. Using logic, in here Mittelt was a prisoner in Issei house but Issei don't know that. But Issei won't kill her, he has made that contract.**

 **Issei mentality is more fucked up than Shirou, it will be really hard for him to hate someone even though if that certain someone want to eradicate all humans. That's why he won't hate or even feels wrong about Viser action, he will just think of it as naturals.**

 **And Dohnaseek! That male Fallen Angel which was instantly killed by Rias! In this story he's the right hand man of Kokabiel so that means he's stronger than in canon, proven by how much wings he has, six wings. Rias won't kill the Fallen Angels yet because her plan is still running.**

 **Preview for the next chapter: Rhongomyniad, crazy exorcist, White Dragon, and Hero faction!**

 **That is it for this chapter, hope that this get a lot of reviews and favs and follower too!**


	7. Second Battle

**Faster update because I love you too~**

…

 **No, it's just a joke. I'm straight as sword. Faster update but shorter chapter so Rhongomyniad will appear in next chapter.**

 **Also for the reviewer who guessed about the contract...**

 **How do you know that? No, it's actually not that important, probably but Issei can't be killed that easily with Avalon so don't worry about that! I don't hate Rias but this is AU so I don't know if Rias in canon want Issei to die too, if I say that Rias is manipulative then I'm going to get an earful from Rias's fans.**

 **I've given few hints in previous chapter about how Rias still wanted Issei to be killed. So yes, indeed she tweaked a few things about the contract but Issei doesn't know that. Forget to add this but the contract is written in Devil language so Issei can't read it neither does Mittelt.**

 **Issei can't harm Mittelt but Mittelt can, Issei just guessed that it was vice versa because he can't harm her. Mittelt of course found out about this and take advantage of it but is it really betrayal? He, in the end, is still a human albeit a very smart one. He doesn't know everything, no matter how careful he is, in reality it won't go as planned.**

 **-0-**

"How about dying?"

The angel of death says while smiling.

The light spear in his hand gleaming through the wall of this house, of course I'm still trying to think what is fallen angel doing here and why did he mentioned Mittelt name. He threw the blue light spear at me who still trying to cope with the situation, the speed he used to throw the light spear was not something to play with. It's not something that I can see like Mittelt or even seen by normal human's eyes, the spear reach its target with in-human speed and I already know what's going to happen through the use of Instinct.

Light blue wings spread from my back the moment I willed it to appear and I jumped back to the air to maintain the altitude. The spear embedded into the floor didn't disappear into small lights like the one I see before but instead, it exploded in bright blue light that makes this whole house shook slightly. The light that came from the exploding spear blinded me for a moment before I opened it again only to find the fallen angel already making his way to me while wielding another light spear in his hand.

I clicked my tongue and readied Excalibur to block his spear attack. Unlike the weak light spear that Mittelt used, it didn't consumed by the light that Excalibur radiated but instead, matching it, making us locking our weapon against each other, trying to overpowering each other. The light spear was smaller than before, but that's what makes it dangerous, it was specifically created to engage in close-range combat not to be thrown as projectile. I could feel him pushing me back with more force than normal human can and Excalibur is shaking because I only hold it with one hand.

Retreating from our current state, I carefully assessed the situation before me. My brain already understand and processed down what is already in my line of sight, things like how the fallen angel calm breathing and how he wielded the spear only with one hand, obviously decreasing its power.

"You didn't use your left hand?" I asked the fallen angel who stopped when hearing my question.

"It's only for the fun you see," He answered me before twirling his light spear with one hand. "Aren't you the same though? You can't use yours too right?"

"You must be really stupid to battle with a state like that." I said, stating the fact.

It was true. Anyone who wanted to win will obviously take any advantage they can get to win the battle, whether it's a minor wound, weakness, weapon, or magic. I don't think that something as simple as that will change in supernatural side too, unless the opponent in front of me doesn't want to kill me.

"No, no, no. You misunderstand me kid," The fallen angel replied before lifting his hat slightly to show his feral grin. "It's because I can kill you instantly that I handicapped myself."

I pay no mind to his boast and not going to ignore the chance, charged at him with slower speed than he used previously. It's still hard to control the **[Flight]** ability of Divine Dividing, I know that I can be more faster than this, this was after all the wings of one of Heavenly Dragons. But still I can't even fly with not even quarter of its original, if what the legend said is true then Dragon can fly with speed that surpassed, if not matching, the jet flight.

The fallen angel threw his blue light spear which I quickly avoided in the air by using some air maneuver. Reaching the range of where Excalibur can be used, I slew down my opponent with speed excelling anything I've used before.

!

"Wha…?"

My surprise was justified.

Excalibur, the legendary holy sword said to be the symbol of victory wielded by king of Britain, is supposed to split my opponent in two easily like that stray devil. It supposed to settle the match even before the fallen angel can think about regretting holding back against me.

"No… way."

I, who was still in the posture of having swung the sword with my only right hand, stare at my opponent in front of me with blank amazement. Even my brain and instinct does not understand what happened. Such a thing shouldn't be possible, my brain told me that. The perfect strike that was slashed vertically, cleaving my opponent in two…

Was stopped when he caught the blade.

The sword has stopped before slashing his body, being caught by his hand.

I read about it once, that there's a technique to stop an enemy's blade with bare hands.

What I don't know is that it actually existed and this man can somehow use it against me.

"See what I'm talking about?" His voice cut through my confusion and reminded me that I was still in a battle.

My body moves before the fallen angel can say anything again, I pull back the sword with all of my might left in my right hand.

"If you can keep up with me then I can show you why I don't bother to use two hands." He said while fixing his hat with his free hand and with that hand too created another spear.

The fallen angel disappears once he has created the spear.

Not disappear but moving in speed that can't be seen by normal human eyes, it surpassed even the speed that I can achieve with the use of Haste and my light wings right now. My instinct played the crucial role in this battle as it acted for my life-link, I can see the future where I died. Without even thought about the image of death, I lifted Excalibur with my working right hand and blocked the attack from the six-winged fallen angel.

Sadly that didn't work the same way I thought.

The fallen angel didn't stop his assault when his light spears met my holy sword. He keep putting more force to push me back, he's using both of his hands to do it combined with the fact that I can't use my other hand, it putting me into a state of losing. True to his boast, his strength before didn't even hold a candle to his strength right now.

In aerial battle like this, it will be hard to keep myself flying while being pushed down like this. It was much harder than on the ground. Clicking my tongue, I retracted Excalibur and let the light spears cleave through my body while at the same time shifting my body slightly to avoid the vital organ. My feet moved to push the fallen angel away but he didn't waste any movement and used one of his spears to block my feet.

Even though it was blocked, it still served the original purpose of making some distance with the fallen angel. The wound that he created is already healing, the move before was a gamble, a death gamble, one that will cost my life if I failed to do it perfectly. I already know that I won't escape unscathed but the real gamble is whether or not the wound will heal, thankfully the wound is healed rapidly and moment later, I'm already in perfect state.

No time to say my thanks for the healing, I moved once again to intercept the attack coming from my left flank. It's hard to do so with only my right hand but I somehow manage to do it. He did not stop after I stopped his attack and his other hand which was equipped with another light spear moved with the speed that's harder for me to comprehend.

The holy sword clashed against the twin light spears. He used his spear in a way that's similar to fencing. Everytime his spear attacked me, it always going for my vital organ. My brain is going overdriving itself to keep up with his attack but in midst of all that, my brain still have another spare room to count the amount of his attack while at the same time the time that has passed when we're exchanging strikes.

Blocking yet another attack, I counted the amount of attack that he has launched on me. 27, 28, the number keeps increasing in the span of second. Some attack managed to hit my wrist, decreasing my swing power but it quickly healed by whatever it is. When our weapon meet, there's no sound produced from it, proof to what I'm clashing with is something in-human.

And yet despite the impossibility I managed to survive all of that.

I can feel my body started to strain by every attack that I couldn't block and avoided. He switched to attacking from all kind of random sides, ignoring his previous attack which always going straight for the kill. He increased his speed once again to the point that I can't keep up with all his attacks, I keep avoiding all of the fatal attacks but at this rate then slowly but surely I will die in his hands. My healing power keeping me from dying but I've not yet checked whether or not I can heal from fatal wound.

Due to the force of our clashes, I could hear the sound of cracking. No matter what, Excalibur is indestructible weapon so that means the only possible source of sound came from my opponent light spears. The fallen angel paid no mind to his weapon state and keeps his attack going with his going-to-be-broken spears. I could understand why he does that, because the moment he's trying to reconstruct it, I will be there already slashing my sword at him.

True to my prediction, the twin light spears broke into disappearing light, my opponent is now empty-handed, I just need to cleave him in two and I'm sure this time he can't caught my blade.

But…

The fallen angel who supposedly had his spears destroyed comes up to me empty-handed and spins and executes a roundhouse kick.

The wall of the house flies past me. My battered chest is numb and I cannot breathe for a moment, I was flying but not by Divine Dividing. I, never in my life, thought of being sent flying by a mere roundhouse kick. I fall to the hard floor of the house with my back. I can't breathe due to the force of the kick it packed, my vision is blurred but I still manage to stand and with my remaining might, swing behind me.

"Keh!"

The fallen angel hesitates a moment as I deflected his spear thrust.

Surprise attack was useless on me since I have instinct and precognition, I would have died if I swung too early or too late but I managed to deflect it at the exact time. I didn't know the exact force or weight he put into that surprise attack and because of that, I've to swing what left of my strength to deflect his attack that used up all of my energy.

I managed to stand up straightly and set my eyes on my opponent.

"You're not supposed to can see that attack," The fallen angel said suddenly while I was trying to steady my breath. "Don't you?"

"Is it? Sorry but I don't think that you who've caught a blade with his bare hand is in the position to say that."

He grinned before replying. "Truthfully I didn't think I would do so well against your holy sword," He replied. "In fact, before was a gamble to check my prediction."

"Meaning? That I was able to hurt you?"

"No. The moment I saw you, we both already know that we have the means of killing each other right?" He said while pointing my holy sword. "That sword, it's weakened."

My breath stopped the moment he said that but I quickly snapped my confusion and take a peek at the sword in my hand. It didn't shine in golden light like before. It just looks like a normal well-made steel sword right now. Ah, right I'm supposed to channel my energy through this sword to increase the slash power huh. But now my reserve is in brink of empty due to me maintaining the **[Flight]** using Divine Dividing, to put it simply, it automatically stopped channeling energy anymore.

"You won't use Divine Dividing won't you?"

I didn't immediately reply but instead relieving through my memories of what happens yesterday, it was real, I would die yesterday. The sense where your body isn't yourselves anymore, the feeling when your body would explode from inside and yet at the same time dying by the pressure outside, I've experienced it all, and I know very well where the source came from.

It's not just an image due to my eyesight, that day I'm seeing my back explode from inside sprouting out a pair of wing, real dragon wings. Whatever it is healing me before, also prevented it from happening so I guess I was spared before but I won't forget that the wings actually tried to kill me.

I sighed before replying. "No, unless it's necessary in this battle I won't use it."

"I see," The fallen angel mused as if understanding what I'm implying. "You must be really stupid to think that you can beat me without it."

"You won't know unless you try right?"

"It was stupid to think like that kid," He said while showing his beast-like grin. "But I like it."

"I think I prefer when you only use one hand." I said trying to joke with him.

My opponent didn't reply before chuckle came from his mouth. "You're really saying that right now? If I know you can battle me with body like that, then I won't hold back in the first place." He replied while his eyes darted over to where the wound that he makes was supposed to be. "But then again even without an arm you can still heal right?"

I didn't immediately reply but instead flexed my right arm trying to check for any wound, I can still move even blocking an attack with my supposed-to-be broken arm. "That too, I don't know. Maybe it was Sacred Gear effect?"

"Divine Dividing with healing effect? That's some crazy ability you got there kid." The man said while spinning his spears and rested one of them on his shoulder. "Eh, not really my problem though."

"Not your problem huh? And here you are trying to kill me."

"This and that is different kid. Now, shall we get to killing?"

I realized the tone he used and quickly prepared the defensive magic circle once the light spears in his hand become longer. He threw two of them not at the same time due to the decreasing force it will caused if he throw it at the same time but not exactly _after_ he threw the first one. The exact time he threw his second spear after the first one was near simultaneously, in fact, if not for my instinct, I don't think I can see the difference between the speeds he threw.

Two spear of lights strike the shield made of magic circle in front of me, this was different magic circle than the one I used with Stray Devil. It was more smaller but more concentrated to reflect the attack that made contact with this shield, the fallen angel should be doing something instead of smiling at me so why?

Ah…

My brain took control of me even before my instinct warned me. I should know it, after all I've experienced it the firsthand. It will explode. My instinct and my experience told me that, there's a reason why he's smiling even though the spear will be reflected, there's a reason why he's standing calmly doing nothing but staring at me.

Because I will die nonetheless.

I retracted my hand from the barrier circle and retreating from the twin spears that's already making its way to me. The world seemed to slow down at that instant but the exact thing was different, it's not really slowing down and I don't exactly became faster but it was something entirely different. When thinking or making strategy while in battle, I always used three-no five seconds to asses my situation and processed the information with my brain.

I can think faster now, I can make out how to getting out alive. Using my brain to its limit currently, I'm able to think up four ways for me to escape from this alive, it didn't stop at four counts but it automatically created one after another and dismissing the one that has the least chance of success. I, the vessel of that brain, was able to understand perfectly and completely about the plan to ensure that I was alive, to ensure that this body can survive.

I commanded the wings of light on my back to do its job.

 **[Divide]**

The wings screamed while at the same time, the fallen angel's smiling did not escape my attention as his power was halved and absorbed to me. I could feel my reserves filled once again by foreign energy but it quickly changed into my own energy. The twin light spears which is the main problem seems smaller than before and without even thought about the risk of using Divine Dividing, I kicked off the "empty" air in front of me to gain some distance from the exploding light.

The air which supposed to be devoid of anything suddenly gained a color of white before from it formed a magic circle which I used as stepping stone. Successfully gaining some distance from my certain death, I glared at the spear of light which exploded in blue light creating a big orb that engulfed everything around it. After the spear disappeared, there's nothing left inside the area that was engulfed in bright blue light.

Which means it also destroyed the corpse of Stray Devil too, another thing that I don't bother taking care of. I can't say my thanks to him though he will try to kill me before I can say that to him.

I've avoided my death, gained more power while at the same time weakened my opponent. My opponent should've groaned in frustration or begin to take things seriously, so why?

Why's he still smiling?

"Finally, I thought that you would never use it." My opponent said while lifting his hat to allow me to have a sight of his grin once again.

I'm not supposed to use Divine Dividing because of the fear of losing control but I instantly discarded that thought once I formulate the plan that will definitely succeed. If I die then that's the end, but if I use Divine Dividing then I still have the chance to win. It was obvious what the choice was, for now I won't think about the result of my action, whether my body will destroyed like yesterday or I will just die, I will erase such a thought that will hinder this battle.

My battle is something that can be won by controlling what I already have, using instinct and at the same time using information provided by the gathering of my five senses. My brain processed down the information at great speed, faster than normal human can.

That's why I called my brain super computer.

It won't allow me to get panic and it also negated anything some sort of mental hindrance like stress, hypnotize, or sleep deprivation. The problem isn't that sadly, in theory it was possible to win against him but in the end it's just a theory created inside my mind.

The problem was whether or not my body can keep up with my mind.

My body is, in the end, still a human body. While it certainly stronger than normal human, it was still a prison of flesh and bone. That's why I used Endurance, when I falls after being kicked by that Fallen angel I should've died either due to brain shock or broken bones all over my body. It enhances my body endurance to the limit that's impossible for normal human to achieve. I don't think that my healing power could heal me when my brain was destroyed.

In my opinion every battle is winnable as long as one has the means of killing their opponent. There's no such a thing as zero chance to win when you can kill your opponent, the problem isn't whether or not I have the means to kill the man in front of me but whether I will have the chance to kill him. Every normal human out there who have weapon that can harm Fallen Angel has the capability of winning this battle, even though it's only 0.1%.

As long as each one of them haves the means of killing each other then it can be called battle. My fight with Mittelt can't even be called a battle, when I haven't yet awakened my Sacred Gear it was just a one-sided beating up. That is no battle but what I'm fighting with right now is a real deal, something that shouldn't be fought without using carefully prepared plan and cooked up strategy.

I'm capable of matching him only by a little, even then I've used every enhancement magic on me and yet I'm still losing. If I can use my left arm then… no, even then he's still superior in every way than me. I guess I've advantage over him in speed. Divine Dividing haven't yet reach its full potential. I can't able to tap even quarter of its power. I guess battle is also the process of learning and experiencing life-and-death situation until you can win.

This is a six-winged fallen angel, one that's stronger than Mittelt. He's also different than the stray devil because he's human-sized opponent who is much stronger and actually engaged in close-range battle.

"You seems to take it too well when I'm winning against you."

"Who? You, win against me?" The fallen angel chuckled once he said that. "Certainly you have a chance of winning against me with that holy sword and Divine Dividing boosted your winning rate but it's just that." He said so while creating another light spear. "Doesn't mean that it ensure you getting out of here alive."

"You, you're enjoying this aren't you?" I ask him while dismissing Excalibur, the fallen angel squinted his eyes at me before he laughed.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I guess we're in the same ground now."

"Same ground? You're clearly stronger than me and yet you say that?"

"Your healing power," The fallen angel said while pointing the edge of his light spear at me. "It's really cheating to use that sort of power in this battle. I guess the only way to kill you is to destroy you completely?"

"Really? I don't think that I can survive from being stabbed to the heart though." I replied him while my right hand is making its way to my pocket, grabbing another magic circle secretly.

I can't hope to match his speed in battle without another enhancement. This is the stronger version of Haste that I've just used, but sadly I can't stack it up with the one before. That's enough. The danger of using stronger enhancement is whether or not my body can endure the magic from it and my reserves is still enough to use it without it draining my life force. I know that my reserves will be emptied out after I used this and if the healing power is using my magic power then that means I will giving up my only way to survive for this.

"Human's magic eh? Kokabiel told me that it could be dangerous when you've already researched it enough."

"Calculating phenomenon in this world using formulae isn't something dangerous though," I said, replying him while brought the magic circle on my line of sight showing him the drawing circle. "If you can't use magic then yeah, it's not dangerous enough to get you killed."

Activating the magic circle, I feel my renewed speed and moving my finger to get the feel of my new strength. It certainly moves faster than before, for example I could move each of my fingers that they will be seen like a blur in normal human eyes easily without getting tired. I let my wings disappear and with Lightweight, I softly landed on the ground, the fallen angel keep his eyes at me but he too in the end was standing on the same ground as me without his wings.

The man grinned once before saying, "You really planned to end this huh," He said while readying his twin spears. "Now that it's already gotten out of wa-"

"Wait." I said suddenly stopping him immediately. "Are you sure that you want to kill me? I'm only here to kill Stray Devil not to engage with Fallen Angel faction."

From what I've gathered, the strength of Fallen Angel is counted by how much wings they have. Azazel, the leader of Fallen Angel, was said by Mittelt to be the strongest Fallen Angel and the first Angel that has fallen from its grace with 12 wings, easily placing him to be the leader of Grigori. This man in front of me, if what I'm seeing is true then he must be some sort of important figure in Grigori, I don't know what could've placed me in his list of kill since I've only awakened my Sacred Gear yesterday.

I've just harmed Mittelt one time and even that I don't kill her. I've spared her with the contract made by Gremory-san in exchange for her to never harming me again, unless she somehow informed me about my action and requested me to be killed then…

No, that alone is already impossible since Mittelt was bound by the contract to never "Harm" me again. That is not limited by physical pain but any action that can bring harm to me is prohibited forever for her. It supposed to be impossible for her to inform the fallen angel faction to give order for me to be killed. So why am I still hunted by Fallen Angels?

"It's not the matter of our faction or not, human, devil, or angel, I would kill them if he ordered me to do so," He replied me lazily as if stating the obvious. "So it's not my problem to complain or think about them. He gives me the job, I'm the one who do it, whether you'll hate me when I do it or not I won't care about it."

"You… you don't even care about your order?"

"Nope," The fallen angel said nonchalantly without caring about what he's just answering. "Even if he ordered me to attack the god too then who am I to complain about it? It's my job, my duty and my only purpose."

He's… insane. I don't think I've seen anyone who will follow someone as dedicated as him. He's so loyal to this person that I don't see anything wrong with his logic and reason. No, maybe in the first place I don't think of his action as wrong since my morality is already messed up in the first place.

There's no stopping him from doing his mission, I can't persuade someone like him. If it's Mittelt, her reasoning is to survive and for that it was pretty easy to seal a deal with her by giving what she wanted. But this man in front of me is different. I guess once again I was wrong to think that supernatural was the same as human, only abnormal being could hope to understand the way he's thinking.

Thinking about it again, I'm not exactly normal aren't I?

But there's something that confused me, like how he mentioned the person that ordered him as "He" so I can safely assume that it was male, Mittelt is out for now since I've "checked" yesterday that she's definitely female inside too. He mentioned Kokabiel so does it possible that this Kokabiel person is the one that ordered my death?

"You will kill me just because an order? Without even caring about the lives you took?"

"Enough talk," He said with the tone that basically said no further talk. "I came here to kill you, just that."

That's the signal.

I ducked to avoid his thrust, before I won't be able to avoid it but with my new speed now I could do it. It's not exactly overwhelming feeling that I got from the chant yesterday, like how I could take on everything but it gave me reassuring that I could hope to match him. I performed a sweep across his feet, knocking him off the ground. Usually it would not be possible for normal human to do this to fallen angel whose body is stronger than human but I've enhanced myself to the limit that's impossible for normal human to achieve.

But again, this man in front of me proved that such a thing would not hinder him. With light spear in his hand, he slashed me down without having his feet touched the ground. Avoiding his slash, the spear embedded into the floor which he used to spin himself and delivered a kick. Grunting in surprise, I blocked his kick with my sword but it still shocked me how he was able to does an impossible moves without flying.

I was pushed back by his kick, testament to how strong his physical is. He didn't recreate his spear, but instead as if responding to his silent calls the embedded spear flew straight into his grip. I take a step forward, predicting his counterattack, how to avoid it… I throw everything away and kick the ground. I swing the holy sword. In less than second, I close distance between us, concentrate everything I have in my right arm, and swing down with all my might.

My attack's parried. Ignoring it, I quickly regained my stance and swing it again. It does no good since he ward off my attack with quite an effort because I could see how he too have a hard time catching up with my new speed. His spear moved, lunges to pierce my throat, aiming for the kill. My body moves again without my consent, avoiding death once again, my right hand, still shaking a bit due to our clashing, swing the holy sword with what left of my strength.

I read the future ahead of me, ensuring my survival in next ten seconds for each attack I parry. I grunted in frustration. I'm able to keep up with him but all I can do is just fending of his attack. He too must've feels the same about me since I was able to deflect all of his attacks without even letting his spear touched my body again.

I breathe out the air in my lungs. I only have a few magic circles left that I can't use right now since I know, I knew that if I ever let my grip loosen up even a bit, I would die for certain. Fending off another thrust that aimed at my throat, I keep the sight of his predatory grin plastered across his face. He must've thought of this as fun, battle-maniac, someone who takes pleasure in the heat of battle, someone who enjoyed the thrilling experience, knowing that each second passed, you've avoided death for countless time.

I don't share that sentiment though. My mind predicted the line of his attack and executed the action to deflect his attack. My body begins to strain with the overusing of magic and this overdrive that will slowly lead me to my death. True to my theory, my body didn't heal any sign of wound because of my almost-empty reserves. Look like I will really die for certain this time.

I jumped back. I can't keep our clashing forever. My body would not be able to keep up with it as it begun to show the sign of straining. Trying to catch my breath, my eyes never leave from his form. My muscle look like it will explode anytime right now. I gritted my teeth to prevent me from losing consciousness, maybe it better that I can feel pain right now, the sign of me being alive.

Two steps. All that it took for us to reach each other distance. I look down at my body and it certainly have experienced more worse, as long as I'm not death then that's fine isn't it?

My vision wavering and at the same time too I lost the sight of my opponent.

Too late.

Without even knowing what happens, my body was lifted up in the air by the fallen angel. His finger dug deep into my neck, easily squeezing the breath inside it. My neck is crushed and I will die either due to lack of air inside me or to the fallen angel. The holy sword falls from my hand and at the same time my hand is reaching out for my opponent's arm.

I poured all of my magic energy on my finger and it glowed in blue light. My death is coming in four seconds. It's enough to do it. The fallen angel didn't seemed to care about what I'm going to do and continued to put more force to crush my neck, my glowing finger moved to draw the strange character on the fallen angel sleeves.

This was my last remaining magical energy. I originally would only use this to do an emergency escape with Divine Dividing's **[Flight]** but now that I know I will die either way I don't bother to care about what I'm going to do if I escape. Two seconds, my finger still moving and the fallen angel didn't even notice what I'm going to do.

This is it.

"Ansuz!"

My remaining energy drained itself from my reserves leaving me empty of magical energy, the small unnoticeable rune in his sleeve glowing in blue light before it burst into flames. He released his grip upon me and I quickly used the time to breathe in some air, the flames on his sleeve was quickly put out but before I can even notice it, he's already charged his light spear and threw it at me.

Light wing sprouted out from my back and I let it do its job.

 **[Divide]**

The spear got smaller in the middle of flight but it didn't stop its course of flight. Not having energy to fight anymore, I can't move my body and the spear flew straight to my heart crushing whatever inside of it. Looking down at my body, I discovered that the spear is already disappeared leaving nothing but a hole to where my heart is supposed to be. My body falls and the blood came out from the hole creating a pool of blood where I lay on.

"You're really creating a hard work for me to do eh?" A voice that's similar to the fallen angel said that, I can't look up to see his face but I'm sure that the one who talks right now is that fallen angel. "Well now that your heart is destroyed, I don't know what kind of magic that can heal you."

Sound of wing flapping entered my ear but I don't care about that. There's a reason why I used **[Divide]** on him before instead of avoiding the spear. My reserves were empty before but now it was filled with magical energy that I gained from that fallen angel and that's enough for me to do the rest. My sight begun to distort and feeling vanishes from the tip of my finger before it begin to spread. I cough up blood adding the amount of pool of blood under my body.

I already felt this. I already know what it felt to die. This is how it feels to die. I don't care about any of that. The healing power should've already done the work right now. It was a gamble to do but if the end result is the same then I see no reason why I shouldn't do it. Feeling returns to my body. Slowly, bit by bit, like a drop of water going down a leaf, feeling returns to my body. The place where my heart is supposed to be became incredibly hot, it was incredibly hot that the frozen blood melted and started to flow again.

I can't see what's happening but I know it. My body is healing itself right now, recreating the holed-up flesh and at the same time restored my heart in process. My heart resumes its activity. My mind stopped to recover the energy to wake up again.

Huh?

Is that… Gremory-san? With what left of my blurry sight I'm seeing the all-too-familiar crimson shade of her hair when I was dying. Why am I seeing Gremory-san in front of me? I can't mistake her crimson shade of hair even in my state like this, out of people I've seen in my life, Gremory-san is the one that had the rarest color hair.

Must be illusion because of headache, when I opened my eyes again, the image disappeared along with the sound of wings flapping that doesn't resemble a bird at all.

….

I wake up.

I wake up to the loud sound of sirens outside the house. From the windows, I could see the blue and red color of mixed light along with the sound of siren that strangely matched to what I've seen a lot in movies, like how it is when the polices came t-

My mind remembers it.

I feel sick once I remember what have just happened. I've died once and I've died once again, my whole body is in pain, and I have sharp headache each time my heart throbs. My new heart, it feels unreal for sure, something that can't be experienced even for supernatural. I kind of remember he once said that it was nigh-impossible to recover human hearts. And yet here I am, standing on my own two feet when a moment ago I was lying on my own pool of blood.

My head is hazy and I'm pretty sure that I don't need to clean up my own pool of blood since a lot of them were under this house. It looks like a murder scene but then again, the Stray Devil did indeed kills a lot of people inside this house.

"I… really?"

Had my heart destroyed?

Had died once?

Had my chest pierced?

All of them.

Bearing the pain, I get out from the house where I've died. It will be hard to explain why I was in there bloodied up with my own blood to the police so I guess I must escape for now.

 **-0-**

"I'm home."

When I entered my home, I was greeted by the sight of worried brown-haired woman waiting in front of my door. Ah, I must've forgets to text her to not wait for me.

"Issei!? Where did you get… Blood?" The woman suddenly said out of panic and rushed up to my bloody form.

"No, it's fine Kazumi-san. I've just involved in unnecessary conflict," I said trying to calm her down. "Beside look, I don't have any wound, it's just my clothes." While smiling I assured her and lifted up my ripen clothes to show a perfectly healthy body beneath it.

I don't really want to lie to someone who I've been thought as family but I don't really have a choice here do I? When walking home I've recovered a good amount of energy to recover myself from any minor wound like bruise and cut. It was hard to not letting people see me to avoid unnecessary attention but beside it, I'm fine and all.

"T-Then where are you going when it's already night-time? You know that I'm worried about you and I've already texted your phone."

Is it? I want to answer her but when I'm battling that fallen angel I was kicked and crashed into the floor really hard that I'm certain that normal people would die. My phone was destroyed too in process because of that, but I guess it's a good thing that it was destroyed. I don't want police to track my phone and having to answer the questions that would seem really out-of-place. I mean what kind of answer I would give if I have to answer truthfully to them? That the people in there were kidnapped by devil?

"I lost my phone in my way if I know that you would come I won't go anywhere."

"You still haven't answer where did you go Issei." She said while keeping her eyes at my bloody clothes.

"I'm really tired today that I would die if I don't rest soon, Kazumi-san~" I said joking with her but she didn't seemed to believe me. "No, I'm really tired Kazumi-san. Don't worry about the clothes okay? We both know that we can buy it again."

"What I'm worried about is not your clothes," She said while loosening her gaze, her warm hand caressed my cheeks. "It's your well-being Issei. If you're really tired then I want you to sleep early but tomorrow please go home early, I want to have a talk with you about this."

"Right, thank you Kazumi-san."

"Also if you're still hungry, I've made a dinner but by now it probably would've became cold." She said while checking my wound and touching the surface of my new skin, I heard her mumbling something about my wound before finally continued. "If you wanted to then I could warm it up for you."

"Don't worry, I can do it myself." I said trying to reassure her while at the same time intending to make her go home. "I'm just a bit tired over today event. Maybe some good sleep is all I need."

"Are you sure?" She asked me and I could feel her gaze inspecting every inch of my body. "It looks like I must sleep here to watch over you, who know what will you do when I wasn't here?"

"No, no, no, you don't need to do that Kazumi-san. Murayama is waiting for you to come home so you don't need to worry about me."

"Good idea, I will invite Murayama to sleep here too so we can watch over you together."

"How did it come to this?" I said dumbfounded at how my plan backfired to me. "Anyway, I'm not a kid anymore Kazumi-san, it's perfectly normal for teenager like me to get hurt a bit right?"

"Somehow I don't really believe your word…"

Neither do I, in the first place, I don't think that it was normal for middle-schooler to fight a supernatural and came back home after died once. But it's not important. I don't want Kazumi-san to sleep over here because I need to do magic-related things in the morning. I don't know how Mittelt break the contract but the fact that I can't harm her is the problem itself, some of the tomes and scrolls maybe have the information that I needed.

"I'm just tired and the blood isn't exactly mine in the first place so can you erase your worry?"

"Even though I'm not your real parents, I'm still your guardian Issei," She said reminding me of the fact that this woman in front of me is someone that has taken care of me ever since I was a child. "You just need to tell me who did this and the police will take care of the rest."

"I think the police have already solved that…" I mumbled quietly so the person next to me can't hear it.

"You said something?"

"No," I said while making a dismissive motion with my hand, not long after that the silence reigned upon us again. Seeing no further action I rubbed my temple and sighed. "Look, it's just some 'personal' thing that I need to do when there's nobody home okay?"

"Ara?" She suddenly quirked up her eyes at the mention of my personal thing, she smiled scarily at me as if I've said a wrong thing. "'Personal' thing you said? Now I'm starting to be more curious about what you're going to do."

"Sorry, let me say it again, important personal thing that nobody should know except me is what I'm going to do." I said to her while sliding open the exit door. "Kazumi-san, please trust me in this one…"

She didn't seem to believe me and the way her eyes watching my moves, it kind of remind me to a beast watching over its prey. Just as I started to give up, she sighed. "Alright then Issei, I will believe you for now. But if you need anything just call my home okay? I will come immediately."

I can't be more grateful to her and saying my thanks to her. I get out of the way from the entrance and before she exited my home I stopped her. "I apologize that I've made you worry Kazumi-san. I can't imagine what I will become without you."

"Likewise, thanks to you I've experienced how it is to have a problematic son." She said while reaching out to my head but because of our similar height, it kind of awkward for her to do. "Hmm? Did you get taller when I was gone?"

"It's just your imagination, there's no way that I can get taller in short amount of time right?"

"I guess you're right…" She replied before finally leaving my home for real, I caught the sight of her smiling kindly at me while waving her hand.

….

I warmed up the dinner and turn on the TV just so that it's not really silent for the home. Well what can I do? There's no one in this house except me so I just longing for someone to accompany me for dinner and the TV exactly did just that.

When I take the first bite of the meal, I kind of remembered when I was eating together with Elisha and Kazumi-san here…

 **-0-**

Once again I'm seeing a weird dream.

But this one is different, although I can't say the same about the scenery, I'm pretty sure that this dream is different than the one I seen when I was a child.

I still remembered it like it was yesterday because of how bizarre it was. Peoples walking past me with smoke and fog covering their face, the scenery was seen in black and white, I was in some sort of castle and my reflection in the mirror was no more than a distorted human figure. It was pretty strange dream for a kid right? That's not even counting the fact that I rarely dream of something when I sleep.

This time it different, the people I could see it clearly and I could move wherever I wanted through this castle. I can't see my body but it was fine, at least I could move unlike the one before that I have to view the strangeness through other person eyes.

"Aaa…" I checked my voice and a bit surprised that I could speak but it seems like no one hear me, they didn't even realize I'm here. It was too real to be a dream so it can't be that, I could smell and move like in the real world but my presence here is an anomaly, _something that shouldn't be here_.

And soon I realizes.

This was a memories, a memories of a certain king.

How could I forget? I was wielding his legendary holy sword just a moment ago.

The scene changed again this time on the remains of battle that I strangely recognize.

There is no emotion. For him, such scenes must have been ordinary. Leaning on his golden sword, he breathed deeply once and slowly relaxes his shoulder. The battle is over, glancing at the bodies of fallen soldier, he didn't show any emotion across his face and return to his camp.

That was only his exterior.

Somehow I knew very well that despite his lack of emotion, he's still a normal human albeit one that's trained to not show any emotion – to be perfects – no matter what his trouble is.

And so I see the dream of a king.

From the moment he drew the sword from the stone, he was not human. After becoming a feudal lord like his father, he became a king with many knights.

He was called King Arthur.

A perfect king, there's no perfect human but if there's one it would be someone like him.

He gained a part of immortality from the holy sword that makes him cannot suffer wound or age. Excalibur bears the protection of the fairies, making its possessor immortal.

The king was truly invincible.

The people living in fear of savage invasion wanted a strong king, and the knights of the battlefield would only follow an excellent commander. The king met all these criteria. And so, no one questioned who the king was. There's no room for look or size, as long as it can function as the "king" to protect the country, no one will question his way of thinking.

The new king was fair and selfless, and always stood in front of the army, defeating enemies on the battlefield. Many enemies and people died, but the king's choices were always correct and he served as the "king" better than anyone else. There was no doubt and no need for doubt while the king was right. Knowing no loss on battlefield, the king always comes out victorious.

It was normal practice to meet military needs by sucking everything out of the local village for the battle to protect the country. In that regard, there could not be any knights that killed more people than him. Maybe he found it a burden but it was necessary for the country.

But there is no doubt in his figure, running through the battlefield. He does not even narrow his eyes in grief when he sits on the throne.

A king is not human.

One cannot protect the people with human emotions.

Somehow that statement did not feel very far off from me.

He kept the oath strictly. He settled every problem and worked hard in government affairs. He balanced the country without any deviations and punished people without a single mistake. And after ending another battle in victory, commanding the people without disorder, and punishing hundreds of criminals…

"King Arthur does not understand human feelings." A knight close to him murmured.

That…

I don't know why but it feels like I have heard a similar thing said to me. I don't understand human feelings before and I'm pretty sure that even though I've changed a little, I only capable of small range of human emotions. Maybe someone said it to me when I was a child? When I was a child strangely I matched what the knight said.

But even though the one who said it was only one knight, perhaps everyone felt the same. The more perfect he became as the king, the more they questioned him as a ruler.

A person without emotion cannot rule over other…. Is it true?

Several reputable knights left Camelot, but the king took it as a natural event and accepted it as part of the process of government. Thus, the fair king honored by his knights isolated himself.

What's this? Even though I'm sure this was memories of King Arthur, it seems… familiar to me in a sense.

The king will not change his mind even if he's abandoned, feared, or betrayed. There's no right or wrong. He abandoned his emotions from the moment he decided to pull out the sword.

And the final battle began.

The battle at Badon Hill ended in complete victory, and because of the overwhelming results, the savages sought reconciliation. The country that would have just awaited destruction earned a brief period of peace. The chaos that demanded absolute hero has ended. Britain is finally returning to the country that he has dreamed of.

…The scene started to fade away. I will lose consciousness and wake up soon. But before that something is really bugging me.

King Arthur was too much like me. Our personality is so similar that it's almost scary, the only difference was that I was born without emotion and King Arthur abandoned his emotion the moment he drew the sword from stone.

I know he need to put away his emotion and become someone like me – person without emotion – but I still find it weird that human would throw away something so important. Normal person would obviously say the same but it comes from me, someone who was born without it.

It's just… frustrating.

I seek for it endlessly and yet he threw it away…

I hate it.

Like how I hate myself.

 **-0-**

I've wake up from that dream, from the memories of King Arthur. I've no doubt that the sword that I have now was Excalibur, the sword that bring victory to the wielder. But, there are still some things that didn't match up. Mittelt didn't say anything about Sacred Gear showing memories. Does this mean that Excalibur isn't a Sacred Gear?

A lock of blonde hair caught in my eyes snapped me out of my thinking, touching the lock of blonde stuck on my hair I sighed as I realized what's coming. Rolling the futon and putting it on its place, I went to the bathroom, to the place where there's a full body mirror in there.

"It's growing huh?" I muttered to no one.

Half of my hair already turning into blonde and my left eye's brown shade has gone, mixed into it was combination between green and brown. I can't go to school like this, not when I have this hair. Maybe I could use some disguise magic to hide my hair and eye? It seems like a good idea to do but I probably would be late to school since I'm trying to learn the magic.

….The first period isn't exactly necessary too but Kazumi-san will notice if I don't go to school.

I can already use my left hand although I admit it's still heavy, that's good. With this I probably could hold my ground against that fallen angel. Its reaction time was far slower than usual but I could do it… with this… no, I'm sure that fallen angel still haves something that he doesn't show me, his eyes told me that he's a veteran probably from the war or more worse Great War. That means I'm going against something that was more powerful and ancient than what I've encountered in my life, there's no sure way to win except to try.

Sighing once again, I went to my room. The scrolls and tomes maybe have some way to hide this, with magic or if I wanted to, I can call Matsuda or Motohama to buy me some hair spray and eye-patch. Or I could call the teacher that I was sick and I'm sure that Kazumi-san will understand considering how worried she is yesterday of course.

There's still a matter with Fallen Angel too of course, not to mention when someone high-standing is probably ordered my death. It was probably a good thing if I call in that I'm sick, that way I could gather more information probably from Gremory-san in Kuoh Academy or I could search for the fallen angel alone and if I can extract information from him.

To do that, I probably need to defeat him first but I can't do that, not when he's obviously stronger than me and will kill me on sight.

Mittelt, god I really need her right now. I should've asked more about supernatural before she ran away, but something is really bugging me to no end about what that male fallen angel said. He said that he know Divine Dividing possessor is me from Mittelt but that doesn't match what the contract does, I can't hurt her that much I already know, I've tested it before so the contract is working but is by any chance Mittelt is using some loophole giving out information about me?

Or is there any way for the contract to be broken? Mittelt is using that? Or more worse was there's a third party in this? The only third party that I can think of is Gremory-san the one who created the contract but now that the contract is gone, I don't have any proof about it.

I searched frantically around my room for cell phone but once again remembered that it was destroyed yesterday. Using the phone in my house, I called Motohama.

"Motohama, can you tell the teacher that I'm sick today?"

" _Huh? You're lying right? Ever since we became friend, I never once seeing you get sick."_

"Well," I paused trying to search for a suitable answer. "Let's just say that I don't have a good sleep yesterday, because of that I have a **really** bad headache."

" _Is it really that bad? No offense but you seems like the type that seems endurable to pain."_

"I've get sick once when I was a child so your statement is a bit incorrect but other than that yeah, in fact yesterday, every time my heart is beating, it gives me a sharp headache."

" _Surely it can't be that bad, you're joking or not with me right now?"_

"I'm not," I said while rustling through my blonde hair, I guess it can be called disease? "Anyway, I can't go to school right now so tell it to the teacher alright?"

" _Okay, but tomorrow comes to my home alright? I have something really cool to show you!"_

"Cool? Is it porn again? If it just that then tell Matsuda not me, I've better things to do than that."

" _I won't deny that it's an eroge but it has a good storyline, maybe it will even warm the heart of someone like you."_

"That's harsh," I replied while chuckling at the thought of such a game. "I will consider coming to your house tomorrow but for now just do what I said okay?"

" _Okay, take care then… if you're really sick that is."_

I closed the phone. Going to my room to continue my search of something useful, I discovered that there's a lot of thing I didn't know about magic. Ansuz rune that I used yesterday was one of the primordial rune created by Odin himself, calculating magic is magic system that Merlin Ambrosius created during his life-time and it was the most common magic to this day.

There's a lot of notes about researching phenomenon formulae magic, things like creating a tornado with magic by calculating the velocity of the wind and amount of magic put into that, creating the formulae needed to do that and applying it to the magic circle which then can be used easily. Unfortunately it's not yet finished, in fact a lot of magic circles in this room were all half-finished.

Is the one who created all of this is Elisha or someone else?

There's other type of magic like Rune magic that I used yesterday. I don't think that it would actually really become useful in battle, I just learnt Ansuz rune because of its effect. Strengthening and Enchantments rune seems complicated but it may be worth it. I can apply it to my clothes to further boosted my chance to win, rune to enhance my sight may actually become useful too if I found myself fighting in long-range battle. Speed enhancing rune, I need this to be inscribes into my shoes when I fight that fallen angel again.

…

There's too much, simply too much magic and that's not even counting the one that is not written in the scrolls and tomes. Magic has really developed huh? And there's a lot of human that's living their live without even knowing this sort of thing exist. For now, I will just use calculation to use magic and some Rune written on my casual clothes. I've made some magic circle of my own made with calculation of high-schooler, I doubt that it would be that much use in real battle though.

Maybe I should consider learning math seriously now that I know magic is using calculation and formula of math. There's even half-finished magic circle of someone who's making a formula about time on one's body, to alter it slightly, accelerating or slowing it. It was a fail project, I don't know if it was because the one who made this have already died or it's just that hard to calculate the time which is always moving.

If I succeed in finishing this magic circle then it could expand my chance of winning by large margin, if this was stacked with Haste, I could move with double the speed I've used yesterday. Considering that the fallen angel himself seems to have a hard time finding an opening when I used Haste, I know that I would win if I happen to be able to finish the formulae.

It was also mentioned that altering the time on one's body will cost a tremendous amount of magical energy, probably about half of average magician reserve so that means I who isn't magician will use more than half. I think that's enough, if I have twice the amount of speed I used with Haste then I can fatally wound him using _that_. Well, if what the dream mentioned is true then I can use _that_ to pierce him. At my current rate, _that_ is more effective to use than Excalibur.

I will just learn Rune magic in case that I can learn all of them today which is impossible.

Well if it's just the issue of using then I could do it actually, it's just an inscribed character after all. But the actual mastering is the problem, speed enhancing rune that I could use right now was far from mastery. Far from that, I've read how the primordial rune that Odin used is different than the one I used right now which is modern runes. But that doesn't change the fact that Rune magic was extremely useful for newbie like me who's still confused about magic.

I really wanted to try Strengthening myself, I really wanted to try it… but I digress. If I try enhancing my sight and failed then my eyes would explode, if I try enhancing my legs and I failed then I would cripple myself, I don't really wanted to risk myself dying again, who know that my healing power could actually ran out when I was on the verge of dying? For now, using magic circle to strengthen myself is safer.

The best course of action right now was probably to visit Gremory-san which means entering Kuoh Academy again. It's probably not the best thing if battle did indeed take place in there, I would be at severely disadvantage because of the unknown trap that she could have laid combined with how there's also other Devil like Souna Shitori and Akeno Himejima.

But at this rate I won't have any information regarding what happened in this town. What to do…

My thought was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing and the sliding door opened which can only be caused by my guardian.

Ah… it looks like I've some explaining to do.

… **.**

 **I originally planned to wrap the entire arc with one chapter but I figured it will be too long so I separated the chapter but on the bright side, you guys get a faster update.**

 **I never mentioned this but what Issei summon is not "Servant" but "Heroic Spirit without class container". It normally weaker than its servant counterpart but in exchange of that, the heroic spirit did not have Noble Phantasm limited by class so that means, Issei have all weapon linked to King Arthur which is currently sealed by the way. Carnwennan: Little White Hilt, Caliburn: Golden Sword of Assured Victory, and nameless horses that Arturia Alter Lancer ride on.**

 **Issei's view about King Arthur from Nasuverse isn't exactly a good thing, he knew exactly how it felt to live without emotion so of course he hate how he threw away his emotion easily even though he know it's for a good thing.**

 **About DxD's magic, I'm going to play by the rules of DxD world and maybe stretch out its limit to some extent. Issei won't be limited himself to just sword skills, he will learn various magic from other patheons like Norse magic and Egypt magic maybe. In this chapter, you get the preview of Issei using Ansuz rune.**

 **I will make Issei suffer, I don't hate him but I must make him experience what it feels like to fight with the risk of dying. Issei will get hurt a lot in this story but he has Avalon so it's not like he will die.**


End file.
